BhuA study report has come out stating that the rotation of Mi’s inner core has stopped and the direction of movement has changed. According to the report, the inner core took a pause in its rotation in 2009 and then started moving in the opposite direction. Nature GeoscienceThis has been stated in the report published in Researchers say that this is a change in direction that occurs every 35 years.
Researchers think the inner core swings back and forth like a pendulum relative to Earth’s surface. One movement cycle of the inner core is completed in six to seven decades. That is, the direction of motion changes every 35 years. According to the scientists Yi Yang and Xiaodong Song, who led the study, there was a change in the direction of movement in 1970 and there will be another change in direction in 2040. Both are scientists at Peking University in China.
What is Earth’s inner core?
Scientists have divided the Earth’s layers into three parts – the crust, the mantle, and the core. The part immediately above the inner core is called the outer core. It is mainly made of nickel and iron. Just below this layer of the most viscous liquid is the inner core. Part of the inner core is thought to be iron crystals. The temperature of the inner core is estimated to be about 6000 degrees Celsius, close to the surface of the Sun. The inner core is solid due to high pressure.
Because the inner core is more than three thousand miles beneath our feet, there is only limited knowledge of this land. The inner core plays a critical role in many things, including creating the Earth’s magnetic shield and shielding it from harmful radiation. The inner core is like a ball about the size of the nose of the moon. It is believed that the inner core can rotate at different speeds and directions because it is inside the liquid outer layer (outer core). But scientists don’t have a clear picture of the variations in rotation speed.
In 1936, during the study of seismic waves, the first indication of the inner core, located at the center of the Earth, was received. The inner core has an area of about 7,000 km. A follow-up study in Nature in 1996 found consistent changes in the length of time it takes for seismic waves to travel through the inner core. The scientific conclusion is that this change is because the annual rotation speed of the core is one degree more than the rotation speed of the mantle and crust.
How does the direction of motion of the inner core relate to the Earth’s daily cycle?
Scientists say that the movement of the inner core is related to the length of the Earth’s day. Variations in the rotation of the inner core may cause slight changes in the time it takes for the Earth to rotate. This is because the Earth’s rotation is influenced by the magnetic field and the Earth’s different layers, the Earth’s crust, mantle and inner core, are interconnected.
The difference in rotation time reveals the interrelationship of the different layers of the Earth. Movements in the central core, then in the central region and in the crust can create resonances in other layers and finally at the Earth’s surface, the study team says.
Perhaps the only time we sometimes remember the movements of the Earth is when there is an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. Like rotation and orbit, there is constant movement in the interior of the earth. Although the natural periodic motions of the inner core have an effect on the Earth’s surface environment, experts currently believe that the change in rotation direction may not pose a threat to Earth or life on Earth. More studies are going on in this regard.