When lava flows, hot springs, geysers, etc., are naturally cooled by the climate they interact with when they reach the surface, how is core temperature sustainable?
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It does and it doesn’t. Over time, the center of the Earth is going to cool down, resulting in less geothermal activity, less plate movement, and fewer volcanos. The same thing has already happened to Mars and the Moon. It just is so big, and started so hot that this process is not going to be completed by the time the Sun consumes the Earth when it dies. So in practice, it’s just going to stay the same temp.
However, there is extra heat being generated from the decay of radioactive metals in the core, but this also decreases over time, and is one of the slower processes in the solar system. Again, it results in just staying the same.
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