{"id":12072,"date":"2024-06-24T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=12072"},"modified":"2024-06-14T02:59:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T02:59:41","slug":"study-uncovers-earths-inner-core-slowing-down-backtracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/study-uncovers-earths-inner-core-slowing-down-backtracking\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Uncovers Earth&#8217;s Inner Core Slowing Down, Backtracking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-gray-200-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h1 id=\"at-a-glance\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">At a Glance<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">Scientists have discovered that Earth&#8217;s inner core is slowing down relative to its surface, a significant change in its movement pattern.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">The study provides evidence that the inner core&#8217;s speed decreased around 2010, contrary to previous beliefs that it rotates faster than the Earth&#8217;s surface.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">The inner core, a solid iron-nickel sphere, is studied through earthquake seismic waves despite being more than 3,000 miles beneath the Earth&#8217;s surface.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Researchers tracked the inner core&#8217;s detailed movements by analyzing seismic data from repeating earthquakes near the South Sandwich Islands.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">The inner core&#8217;s altered movement could subtly affect Earth&#8217;s geophysical processes, including potentially changing the length of a day by fractions of a second.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Recent research by scientists at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">University of Southern California (USC)<\/a> has unveiled a significant discovery about the Earth&#8217;s inner core. Published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-024-07536-4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><em>Nature<\/em><\/a>, the study confirms that the inner core is slowing down about the planet&#8217;s surface, marking a notable change in its movement pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">For the past two decades, the scientific community has been divided on the inner core&#8217;s rotational behavior, with previous studies suggesting it rotates faster than the Earth&#8217;s surface. However, the USC study, led by <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/john-vidale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">John Vidale, Dean&#8217;s Professor of Earth Sciences<\/a>, provides compelling evidence that the inner core decreased its speed around 2010, moving at a slower pace than the Earth&#8217;s surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The inner core, a solid iron-nickel sphere more than 3,000 miles beneath the Earth&#8217;s surface, is surrounded by the liquid outer core. Researchers rely on earthquake seismic waves to study the inner core&#8217;s movements despite its inaccessible nature. By analyzing seismic data from repeating earthquakes around the South Sandwich Islands, Vidale and his team could track the inner core&#8217;s progression and regression with unprecedented detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The implications of the inner core&#8217;s altered movement remain a subject of ongoing research. Vidale suggests that this change may have subtle effects on Earth, potentially impacting the length of a day by fractions of a second. As scientists delve deeper into understanding the dynamics of the inner core, they aim to unravel the intricate relationship between the core&#8217;s movements and Earth&#8217;s overall geophysical processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h1 id=\"references\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">Kwong, W. &amp; University of Southern California. (2024, June 12). <em>Study confirms the rotation of Earth\u2019s inner core has slowed<\/em>. Phys.Org; University of Southern California. <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2024-06-rotation-earth-core.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2024-06-rotation-earth-core.html<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Wang, W., Vidale, J. E., Pang, G., Koper, K. D., &amp; Wang, R. (2024). Inner core backtracking by seismic waveform change reversals. <em>Nature<\/em>, 1\u20134. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-024-07536-4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-024-07536-4<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a Glance Recent research by scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) has unveiled a significant&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/0\/07\/Earth_poster.svg\/2560px-Earth_poster.svg.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[67,1452,661,1453,904,1454],"class_list":{"0":"post-12072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-earth","8":"tag-earthquake","9":"tag-inner-core","10":"tag-magnetic-field","11":"tag-magnetosphere","12":"tag-planet","13":"tag-seismology","14":"cs-entry","15":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12073,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12072\/revisions\/12073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}