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In the deepest part of our planet – the inner core of the Earth – the last decade has witnessed changes in speed worthy of the attention of some geologists around the world: the inner core of the Earth has begun to slow down since 2008. This conclusion reached by scientists from the University of Southern California (USA) confirms What has previously been published by other teams from around the world, showing a clear difference compared to previous decades.
The stopping of this ball inside the planet, which is mainly made of iron and as hot as the surface of the sun, is not a new topic for the team of John Fidel and Wei Wang, from University of Southern California. already exists 2022 They published a work in which they argued that the Earth's inner core could rotate opposite to the direction of the Earth's surface – something that would happen every seven decades due to oscillations in the rotation speeds of the inner layer (the inner core) and the outer layer. External (earth crust).
Although the core and all other layers of the Earth rotate in the same direction and at a similar speed, there are still slight differences. Previous studies show that the core is generally faster in movement than the mantle or crust (the large middle and outer layers of the Earth respectively). But now, the study has been published in magazine nature It goes further, showing that over the past 16 years, the Earth's inner core has slowed down.
What does this mean? From here, researchers can only speculate. These almost “microscopic” changes can affect the planet's rotation or even shorten the length of days. But, for example, in the case of long days, the change would be on the order of milliseconds, an effect that could not be detected by humans. “It's so hard to notice that, within a millisecond, you're almost lost in the noise of the ocean and the churning atmosphere,” says John Vidal. In the current situation.
The motion of the Earth's inner core and its effects on the planet's surface have been the subject of scientific study and much debate in recent decades – and will continue to be, in search of answers about what's happening, why, and what happening will mean.
But we know that these small changes in rotation occur, because we analyze earthquakes. Through the diversity of seismic waves that cross the planet, scientists are able to reveal the internal structure of the core and the speed of its rotation. In fact, this is the Danish way Angie Lehmann He discovered that the Earth's structure remains a solid inner core, in 1936.
The research by the University of Southern California analyzed data from 121 earthquakes between 1991 and 2023, along with other data from nuclear tests in the US, France and the Soviet Union in the 1970s – to compare with the composition of the Earth's inner core. 50 years ago.
“When I first saw the seismograms indicating this change, I was mystified,” John Vidal says in a statement. More than twenty observations with the same pattern confirmed the first results. “The inner core has slowed down for the first time in many decades. Other scientists have recently advocated similar and different models, but our study provides the most convincing solution.
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