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The groundbreaking discovery challenges decades of existing science about Earth’s ‘solid’ inner core. Amazed scientists discover a ‘new world’ hidden within Earth’s core.
The Earth’s inner core, the deepest layer of the planet, is understood to be a mostly solid ball of iron and nickel, measuring about 1,220 km. This core is found at a distance of about 5,149 below the Earth’s surface. This core is responsible for generating the planet’s magnetic field.
Since the 1950s, scientists have generally agreed that the inner core is solid and surrounded by a layer of molten metal. But according to new research published at the University of Hawaii, the ‘solid’ core may be much softer than previously thought.
A team led by Rhett Butler, a geophysicist at the University of Hawaii at the Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), has found Earth’s core appears to be a mixture of soft, solid and liquid materials. This mixture of materials extends over a distance of 241 kilometers from the inner core.
Quoted from Express.co.uk, Sunday (31/10/2021) Dr Butler and his colleagues studied the composition of the core by analyzing earthquake waves.
“Illuminated by an earthquake Earth in the crust and upper mantle, and observed by seismic observatories at the Earth’s surface, seismology offers the only direct way to investigate the deep core and its processes.”
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Photo: Express.co.uk– |
As earthquake waves travel through several layers of the planet, their speed changes and they can reflect and refract them, depending on mineral composition, density, and temperature.
Dr Butler and his team collected data from the Earth’s core by tracking these earthquakes from the opposite end of where they were detected.
They then used Japan’s Earth Simulator supercomputer to assess five opposing edge pairs: Tonga-Algeria, Indonesia-Brazil, and Chile-China.
“In contrast to the homogeneous, malleable iron component alloy considered in all Earth models of the inner core since the 1970s, our model predicts contiguous regions of hard, soft, and molten or mushy iron alloys above 241 kilometers from the core. inside,” he said.
He said these conditions put new constraints on composition, thermal history and evolution Earth.
“Knowledge of these boundary conditions, from seismology, could enable better predictive models of the geomagnetic fields that protect life on our planet.”
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