Unexpected new research that used seismic waves from earthquakes to explore the planet's deepest regions suggests that the inner core of Earth has recently stopped spinning and may now be rotating in the other direction.
The astounding findings imply that Earth's center pauses and reverses course in a regular cycle lasting between 60 and 70 years. This finding may provide answers to long-standing questions about climate and geological events that occur on a similar timescale and have an impact on life on Earth.
There's no need to worry about destroying the Earth's core in order to stop the end of the world, despite the fact that this is essentially the narrative of the 2003 catastrophe movie The Core. Although the core's rotation affects the environment on the planet's surface, scientists believe that the core's periodic spin switch is a typical aspect of its functioning and does not represent a threat to life as we know it.
A solid metal ball the size of the Moon makes up the inner core of Earth. Because it is encased in a liquid outer core, it can spin at a variety of speeds and directions in comparison to our globe, but scientists are unsure of the precise speed of its rotation or whether it varies over time.
The core is roughly 3,000 miles beneath our feet and is subject to such high pressures that it is probably as hot as the Sun's surface. Although it is obvious that the inner core is involved in many processes that make our planet habitable for life, such as the creation of Earth's protective magnetic field, which prevents harmful radiation from reaching the surface, it is one of the least understood environments on our planet because of how remote and challenging it is to study.
According to a study published on Monday in Nature Geoscience, Yi Yang and Xiaodong Song, two researchers at Peking University's SinoProbe Lab at School of Earth and Space Sciences, have now recorded "surprising observations that indicate the inner core has nearly ceased its rotation in the recent decade and may be experiencing a turning-back in a multidecadal oscillation, with another turning point in the early 1970s."