SPACE — Scientists recently discovered that the Earth’s core, which was thought to be a solid, immobile ball of metal, is not as rigid as we thought. Now, a new study shows that the softness of the Earth’s core may be due to hyperactive atoms moving more in its molecular structure.
The inner core is a huge spherical lump of metal, mostly iron, that stretches for about 760 miles/1,220 kilometers. The inner core is at least 1 billion years old.
The inner core is enveloped by the outer core, which is a swirling sea of liquid metal surrounded by a large layer of molten rock called the mantle. The last name is right under the solid crust on which we live.
The pressure at the heart of our planet is so great that experts initially believed the Earth’s core must be completely solid. The iron atoms inside, arranged in a large hexagonal lattice, should also remain in place permanently.
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But in 2021, seismic waves from an earthquake revealed many inconsistencies in the Earth’s core. This has led some scientists to describe it as a “hidden soft world”.
Research suggests this may be caused by swirls of molten iron trapped in the core. Second, the core is in a ‘superionic state’, where atoms of other elements such as carbon and hydrogen continuously flow through the large lattice of iron atoms in the core.
The new research was published in the journal Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science on October 2, 2023. Researchers provide an alternative explanation of what happens inside the Earth’s core.
The researchers also recreated the intense pressure in the nucleus in the laboratory and observed how iron atoms behaved under those conditions. The scientists then fed this data into a computer learning program to create a simulation of a virtual nucleus they called a supercell.
Using supercells, the team was able to see how iron atoms move in structures that are thought to be rigid.
“The results show that the atoms in the nucleus can move more than we ever imagined,” said the study co-authors Jung-Fu Lingeophysicist at the University of Texas, Austin.
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Supercell simulations show some of these atoms can move in groups, taking up other positions in the lattice without compromising their overall shape. “This type of movement is known as a collective movement,” Lin said.
2023-10-05 22:29:00
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