Scientists: the core of the Earth rotates in different directions, changing the length of the day every 6 years

Miscellaneous / by admin / June 14, 2022

The new data refute the usual theory about the rotation of the nucleus.

A new study suggests that the Earth's inner core is oscillating, rotating smoothly in one direction and then in the other. This happens over a six-year cycle that affects the length of the day on our planet.

This new theorySeismological observation of Earth's oscillating inner core, described in the journal Science Advances, contradicts previous ideas that the deepest part of the Earth rotates slightly faster than the surface of the planet.

The inner core of the Earth is a hot ball of dense solid iron, surrounded by a liquid outer core, which is already covered by the mantle and the earth's crust.

Conclusions that the core rotates slightly faster than the rest of the planet were obtained back in the 1990s. Then these data were supported by works on the study of seismic activity and waves generated by underground tests of nuclear bombs conducted by the USSR in the period from 1971 to 1974 on the Novaya archipelago Earth.

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Recently, scientists at the University of Southern California applied the same nuclear activity analysis technology to pairs of earlier underground atomic tests under Amchitka Island near Alaska in 1969 and 1971 years.

Their results showedthat the inner core slowly moved in one direction between 1969 and 1971, turning at least one tenth of a degree per year, and in the other direction between 1971 and 1974.

Based on our findings, we can see shifts in the surface of the Earth compared to its inner core, as has been argued for 20 years. However, recent observations show that the inner core rotated slightly more slowly from 1969 to 1971, and then moved in a different direction from 1971 to 1974.

The inner core is not fixed - it moves under our feet and seems to move back and forth a couple of kilometers every six years.

John E. Vidale

study co-author and professor of geosciences at the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California

According to Vidale, the internal structure of our planet throughout history has a small but significant impact on the length of the Earth's day. For example, about 300 million years ago, a day on Earth lasted about 21 hours. It can change even within one decade, the scientist added.

The thing is that the length of the day is determined by the speed of rotation of the planet. And this can be influenced by a number of factors, but changes in the Earth's magnetic field generated in the core are of key importance.

According to a new study based on changes in the inner core, the length of days grew and shortened, as scientists had expected, by 0.2 seconds over a period of six years.

These data turned the usual idea of the planet's core and raised a lot of questions. But getting new useful information for a deeper analysis will not be easy. Much of the previous research was made possible by data obtained from underground nuclear testing. Since the number of such tests has declined significantly since the Cold War, scientists are now forced to work with earthquake data, which is less accurate.

However, researchers are seeking to delve deeper into the secrets of the Earth's internal architecture in order to better understand how and why the core behaves in such a strange way.