Scientists suggest that the core of the Earth is not solid
Miscellaneous / / March 04, 2022
Moreover, it is not even completely iron.
Although it is traditionally believed that the Earth's inner core consists of a hard alloy of iron with impurities, a new studySuperionic iron alloys and their seismic velocities in Earth's inner code, conducted by scientists from the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggests that it is actually a viscous mixture of elements like silicon, carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen.
One of the unresolved problems in understanding the core of the Earth is that it is characterized by a low shear wave speed, which does not correspond to the speed of sound inherent in iron and its alloys. This led the researchers to the idea that there are inclusions of light elements in the core that lend themselves to the superionic state (that is, they exhibit the properties of both a solid and a liquid at the same time).
The researchers used computer simulations of molecular dynamics to try to understand what the nucleus is made of. The model showed that hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon in iron go superionic under the conditions of the inner core, exhibiting high diffusion coefficients that are typically found in liquids.
A similar opinion was reached by the authors of another study, the results of which were publishedAntipodal seismic reflections upon shear wave velocity structures within Earth’s inner core in the scientific journal Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors in December 2021. They studied how seismic waves travel through the planet's core. Wave behavior suggests that the Earth's inner core is not entirely solid iron, but rather a softer, more viscous substance.
If these theories are confirmed, it will help scientists learn more about the changes that are constantly taking place in the core, as well as how the planet generates a magnetic field. But this will require more tests and experiments, because it is not possible to obtain samples from the core.
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