Geothermal energy

Geothermal energy is generated in the earth's core. Temperatures hotter than the sun´s surface. Are continuously produced inside the earth caused by the slow decay of radioactive particles, a process that happens in all rocks.

Geothermal energy is clean .Often limited to areas near the tectonic plate boundaries .

The earth has 4 different layers crust, mantle, outer core, iron core . mantle is magma and rock. outer core is also magma

The earth´s core has a solid iron core and an outer core made of hot melted rock called magma.The Mantle surrounds the core and is about 1,800 miles thick.The mantle is made up of magma and rock.The crust is the outermost layer of the earth. The crust forms the continents and ocean floors. The crust can be 3 to 5 miles thick under the oceans and 15 to 3 miles thick on the continents.

The earth's crust is broken into pieces called plates. Magma comes close to the earth's surface near the edges of these plates. This is where volcanoes happen . The lava that erupts from volcanoes is partly magma. The rocks and water absorb the heat from this magma deep underground. The rocks and water found deeper underground have higher temperatures.

People around the world use geothermal energy to warm their homes and to produce electricity. They do that by drilling deep wells and pumping the hot underground water or steam to the surface. People can also make use of the stable temperatures near the surface of the earth to heat and buildings

hey are deep underground and are undetectable above ground. Geothermal energy finds its way to the earth's surface in three ways:
*Volcanoes and fumaroles (holes where volcanic gases are

*Hot springs
*Geysers

¨The United States leads the world in the amount of electricity generated with geothermal energy. In 2014,the United States geothermal power plants produced about 17 billion or 0.4% of total U.S. electricity generation.¨ In 2014, seven states had geothermal power plants.
Share of U.S. geothermal electricity produced by each state ,in 2014
California 76%
Nevada 18%
Utah 3%
Hawaii 2%
Oregon 1%
Idaho 0.3%
New Mexico 0.1%

There are three basic types of geothermal power plants.
*Dry steam plants
*Binary cycle power plants

Resources

• ela Energy kids US energy information
• Geothermal energy facts for kids