What is the Earths magnetic field generated by?

Question

What is is generated by?

Answer 1

Previous answers are not quite correct.

The earth's inner core is solid iron, and the outer core is liquid iron. It is the liquid outer core that is the origin of the magnetic field.

Since the inner sold core and the solid mantle and crust are not connected, they can spin at different rates -- and they do. The core spins just a little bit more rapidly than the crust. This creates eddies within the liquid iron outer core, and those eddies are what causes the magnetic field. Since the eddies are caused by the rotation, they are more-or-less aligned with the rotation axis, which is why the magnetic field is also more-or-less aligned with the rotation axis too.

Answer 2

the spinnig of the inner core

Answer 3

I think it is the moving metal iron below the earth's crust, but I'm not sure.

(Something to tell a six year old: The pole on the North Pole has magnets connected to it.)

Answer 4

The main contender is the dynamo theory, which says it's generated by motion of liquid iron in the earth's core.

Answer 5

the inner core