Earth illustration. (Pixabay)
Hitekno.com – Study recently reported that Earth’s core swaying and twirling from one direction to another. The results of this study have been published in the journal Science Advances.
Conditions such as in this latest research are said to affect day length from Earth in a six year cycle.
This new theory about how the Earth’s inner core works runs counter to previous ideas, of the Earth’s deepest geological layer rotating with the rest of the planet, at a slightly faster speed than the surface.
The Earth’s core is a hot red ball composed of solid iron and surrounded by a molten outer core, then the Earth’s mantle and crust.
Theories in the 1990s suggested that the Earth’s core undergoes a superrotation, in which the inner core rotates slightly faster than the rest of the planet.
The theory is supported by research studying the waves generated from underground nuclear bomb tests conducted by the Soviet Union between 1971 and 1974.
But in the new study, scientists from the University of Southern California (USC) used the same methodology to study a pair of previous underground atomic tests beneath Amchitka Island in 1969 and 1971.
Surprisingly, the results showed that the inner core moved slowly in different directions between 1969 and 1971.
Sub-rotation is at least a tenth of a degree per year, compared to the direction it moved between 1971 and 1974.
“Our latest observations show that the inner core rotated slightly more slowly from 1969-1971 and then moved in the other direction from 1971-1974,” said John E Vidale, study author and professor of Earth Sciences at USC IFL ScienceTuesday (14/6/2022).
Vidale added that the Earth’s inner core is unstable, moving back and forth several kilometers every six years.
Not only that, this process also affects the length of the days on Earth.
During this time, many people assume the days on Earth are constant, but the fact is that the days on Earth vary.
For example, about 300 million years ago, a day on Earth lasted about 21 hours.
The length of the day is determined by the rotational speed of the planet. This can be influenced by a number of factors, but is believed to be related to changes in the Earth’s magnetic field generated at the planet’s core.
The new study noted that day length increased and decreased as predicted, increasing or decreasing by 0.2 seconds over six years.
Scientists are still interested in digging deeper into the mysteries of Earth’s core to better understand how and why the inner core behaves in strange ways.
That’s the result of a new study, which reports that Earth’s core wobbles and its impact on day length. (Suara.com/ Lintang Siltya Utami).
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