A study published in September questions the pattern that persists for more than half a century about the composition of Earth’s inner core. Scientists suggest that the deepest layer of our planet is not a solid ball of iron, as we learned in school.
Researchers from the University of Hawaii in the United States point out that seismic data collected from Earth suggests that the core is not a solid ball of iron, but a mixture of hard metal, soft medium and liquid.
Since the 1950s, science has known that Earth is not hollow inside, but that the planet’s core is virtually unexplored due to the heat and pressure preventing the use of any sort of probe.
What happened?
The research was published September 20 in the scientific journal . was published in Earth physics and planetary interiors.
To conclude that Earth’s core is not solid, geophysicists used data from seismic waves produced by earthquakes. It was largely from the vibrations that the researchers were able to reconstruct a view of the inner workings of the planet – as if it were a CT scan of Earth.
Two main seismic waves were analyzed: straight line compression and undulating shear waves. Each may behave differently when traveling on land.
With it, the scientists verified how seismic waves generated in five different points of the planet passed through Earth’s inner core and reached opposite sides of the terrestrial globe.
Analysis of the data showed something that didn’t go according to plan: seismic shear waves, which should behave as if they had passed through a ball of solid metal, reaching a composite structure between carbide, liquid iron, “pasty” and semi-solid metal. Gone – solid.
According to Rhett Butler, a geophysicist at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, the seismic waves’ calculations were correct, with the results indicating that the structure may simply be the core of the planet.
Butler told Live Science, “We’ve seen evidence that not only is it not soft in some places, it’s actually harder in others. So we’re seeing a lot of detail inside the inner core that we haven’t seen before.” “
How does it matter?
The new discovery suggests that Earth’s core is still shrouded in mysteries, and that many of them may never be solved because of their thermal and barometric characteristics.
“The more we look at the core, the more we realize that it’s not an iron ball. We’re discovering a new hidden world. Unless something terrible happens to our planet, we’ll never see Earth.” will not be able to directly observe the origin of the Jessica said Irving, seismologist From the University of Bristol, England, in commentary on venue Live Science. He had no involvement in studies.
