Scientists have confirmed a significant slowdown in the rotation of Earth’s inner core, leading to a flurry of questions about the processes at the heart of our planet and their potential implications. This discovery was spearheaded by a team from the University of Southern California (USC).
The inner core, a dense sphere of iron and nickel more than 3,000 miles beneath our feet, is roughly two-thirds the size of the Moon. Despite its remote location, understanding its behavior could illuminate the history of our planet. The researchers analyzed seismic data from 121 repeating earthquakes recorded between 1991 and 2023 around the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic, along with data from several nuclear tests.
The study revealed that the inner core began to decelerate around 2008, moving slower than the Earth’s surface. This slowdown could be attributed to the continuous motion of the liquid iron outer core, which generates Earth’s magnetic field, or the gravitational pull from the dense regions of the overlying rocky mantle.
The implications of this change in the inner core’s movement for Earth’s surface are still speculative. It may alter the length of a day by fractions of a second, but this change would be so minute that it would be almost lost in the noise of the churning oceans and atmosphere.
This research not only deepens our understanding of the mysteries of the geological deep but also underscores the need for continued monitoring of the Earth’s inner core. As the dance of the inner core continues, scientists are eager to uncover more of its secrets.
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