The Earth’s core has an independent rotational speed. In fact, in the 1990s, a group of scientists discovered that it supposedly rotates slightly faster than our planet.
Now a recent study published in natural scienceand whose managers are scientists Yi Yang and Xiaodong Song, from the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Geophysics, Peking University, notes that in 2009 the two velocities coincided. However, the most interesting thing is that the Earth’s core has not stopped slowing down. Apparently, stopped and then changed direction of rotation.
While this situation could have been the basis for an end-of-the-world movie script, the scientists behind the discovery tried to calm the waters. First, they point out that We are not facing an event that threatens the existence of the planet in the short term.. So let’s forget about the apocalypse. There are other threats that we need to pay attention to, such as climate change.
In second place, I do not exclude that the core of the Earth in the past changed the direction of rotation. Our house is millions of years old, and given the time period they recorded this phenomenon, it is highly likely that it has happened repeatedly.
The fact that the rotation of the Earth’s core was reversed would have some consequences. In an interview with CountryThe song commented on this days can get shorter by a thousandth of a second. In addition, there will be a change in the internal gravitational field, which, in turn, can cause “surface deformations”. For example, sea level change. It is mentioned that this will affect the global temperature of the planet.
“In recent years, the days have been getting shorter, and some of that may be due to the Earth’s core.”
Xiaodong Song.
Current data does not allow 100% confirmation
The data obtained, although reliable, still cannot be considered 100% accurate. Why? Why The study of the Earth’s core due to its depth remains a rather difficult task.. There were attempts to get to the inner layer of the planet in order to conduct research on its behavior, but luck was not on our side.
So, to better understand the Earth’s core, the scientific community has relied on earthquakes and even nuclear explosions. When they occur they generate waves They pass through the core and propagate to the other side of the surface, where they are then picked up by sensors. The waves also change depending on the material they are passing through, letting us know when they have made their way through the deepest corner.
The study of waves has revealed certain information about the core of the Earth. Of course, that’s not all we want – and need – to get. Rotation is just one of the questions that most of all interested scientists. Without adequate data, it is impossible to give an accurate explanation.
“Most of us assume that the core was spinning at a constant speed, slightly different from Earth’s. This work shows that the evidence for faster rotation is strong until 2009 and mostly disappears in later years,” said Paul Richards, a seismologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who was also involved in the study.
Richards believes that core rotation studies are becoming “speculative” because, as mentioned, as long as there is no way to study it properly. However, he emphasizes, the evidence to date is fairly robust.
Not everyone supports the reverse direction of rotation of the Earth’s core
Be careful, not the entire scientific community agrees with what was published in natural science. In an email sent to Washington PostLianxing Wen, a seismologist at Stony Brook University, disagrees. But not only on the subject of reverse rotation, but on the fundamental basis of the study. Wen says the supposed independent rotation is an “inconsistent” explanation after wave analysis.
For her part, Elizabeth Day, a geophysicist at Imperial College London, points out that conclusions cannot yet be drawn. because we just need more information. “We know that the surface of our planet is complex… So it is reasonable to assume that the interior is also complex. To definitively tell how the inner core rotates relative to the planet’s outer layers, we need to continue collecting as much data as possible.”
Source: Hiper Textual
