Inescapable Conclusion: USC Researchers Prove Earth's Core is Losing Speed
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Inescapable Conclusion: USC Researchers Prove Earth's Core Is Losing Speed:
A new study provides clear evidence that the Earth's inner core began to decrease its speed around 2010.
USC scientists have discovered that the Earth's inner core is slowing down relative to the planet's surface, a phenomenon that started around 2010 after decades of the opposite trend. This significant shift was detected through detailed seismic data analysis from earthquakes and nuclear tests. The slowdown is influenced by the dynamics of the surrounding liquid outer core and the gravitational pull from the Earth's mantle, potentially affecting Earth's rotation slightly.
Scientists at USC have proven that the Earth's inner core is backtracking - slowing down - in relation to the planet's surface, as shown in new research published on June 12 in the journal Nature.
The scientific community has long debated the movement of the inner core, with some studies suggesting it rotates faster than the Earth's surface. However, recent research from USC conclusively shows that starting around 2010, the inner core has slowed down, now moving at a pace slower than that of the planet's surface.
"When I first saw the seismograms that hinted at this change, I was stumped," said John Vidale, Dean's Professor of Earth Sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. "But when we found two dozen more observations signaling the same pattern, the result was inescapable. The inner core had slowed down for the first time in many decades. Other scientists have recently argued for similar and different models, but our latest study provides the most convincing resolution."
The inner core is considered to be reversing and backtracking relative to the planet's surface due to moving slightly slower instead of faster than the Earth's mantle for the first time in approximately 40 years. Relative to its speed in previous decades, the inner core is slowing down.
The inner core is a solid iron-nickel sphere surrounded by the liquid iron-nickel outer core. Roughly the size of the moon, the inner core sits more than 3,000 miles under our feet and presents a challenge to researchers: It can't be visited or viewed. Scientists must use the seismic waves of earthquakes to create renderings of the inner core's movement.
Vidale and Wei Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences utilized waveforms and repeating earthquakes in contrast to other research. Repeating earthquakes are seismic events that occur at the same location to produce identical seismograms.
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