A significant change could be happening right under our feet. According to recent study, the Earth’s inner core, which is made of solid metal and serves as the planet’s beating heart, may have momentarily stopped rotating and may even be doing it in the opposite direction.
The layer that makes up the Earth’s surface is called the crust. All known life on Earth is found in this stratum. The next layer is the mantle, which is 2,880 km thick and made of a black, hard rock resembling oceanic basalt.
The inner core of the Earth measures 2,414 km in thickness, while the outer core is only about 2,092 km thick. Iron and nickel make up the majority of the inner and outer cores.
The inner core of the Earth is comparable to Pluto in size.
A recent study indicates that the inner core has stopped rotating in the same direction as the planet’s surface and may potentially be moving in the opposite direction.
Researchers have also suggested that the inner core’s rotation may have paused and shifted because of the powerful gravitational attraction of the mantle.
It was initially demonstrated in 1996 that the inner core rotates irregularly. Strong evidence was discovered by geophysicists Paul Richards and Xiaodong Song that the inner core of the Earth spins freely and a little bit faster than the rest of the planet.
Temperatures and pressures are too high in the Earth’s innermost layers. Conventional probes cannot enter the planet’s interior because of these harsh circumstances.
Theoretical explanations for the rotation of the inner core are not universally accepted. Some scientists think that the inner core’s activity has decreased during the last ten years compared to before.
The rotation of the inner core changing may seem strange. Numerous ideas contend that such a transformation has happened before (if at all).
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