Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

New research finds Earth's core slowed so significantly it reversed course, scientists not exactly sure of effects
The Blaze ^ | JULY 07, 2024 | PAUL SACCA

Posted on 07/08/2024 5:49:49 AM PDT by Red Badger

Scientists believe a slowing or reversing inner core could potentially affect Earth's magnetic field. At the center of the Earth lies a solid metal ball that rotates independently of our spinning planet. Scientists have debated the inner core's rotation speed and direction. However, new research points to the inner core varying speed in recent years. However, researchers are not exactly sure if there are any effects from the inner core slowing down or reversing.

Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann discovered the ball-shaped inner core in 1936.

The inner core is buried approximately 3,220 miles deep inside Earth. The solid metal ball is mostly comprised of iron and nickel. The inner core is estimated to reach temperatures as scalding as the surface of the sun – roughly 9,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to National Geographic:

The inner core’s intense pressure — the entire rest of the planet and its atmosphere — prevents the iron from melting. The pressure and density are simply too great for the iron atoms to move into a liquid state. Because of this unusual set of circumstances, some geophysicists prefer to interpret the inner core not as a solid, but as a plasma behaving as a solid.

Earth's magnetic field pulls on this ball of hot metal, forcing it to spin. At the same time, gravity and flow of the fluid outer core and mantle also interact with the movement of the inner core.

By analyzing seismographic data, scientists believe the core rotates quicker and slower during a 70-year cycle. A hypothesis proposed in 2023 claimed that the inner care had actually spun faster than Earth itself in the past, but was spinning slower in recent times. The slowdown was so significant that the inner core could even reverse the direction of its spin.

The research discovered the inner core began slowing down around 2008 and slightly reversed direction relative to the mantle by 2023. According to calculations by researchers, the rotation of the inner core will start speeding up again in the next 5 to 10 years.

New research published in the journal Nature on June 12 is said to confirm the core had slowed down significantly. However, scientists are not exactly certain as to what the effects the slowdown or the backward movement could have on the Earth.

There is one theory that a slower-spinning core could fractionally alter the length of a day.

The movement of metal-rich fluid in the outer core generates electrical currents that power our planet's magnetic field, which protects our planet from deadly solar radiation. Scientists believe that a slowing or reversing inner core could potentially affect Earth's magnetic field.

The new study's coauthor Dr. John Vidale – Dean’s Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences – said the new research "nails it."

Vidale told CNN, “I think we’ve ended the debate on whether the inner core moves, and what’s been its pattern for the last couple of decades.”

Dr. Lauren Waszek – a senior lecturer of physical sciences at James Cook University in Australia – told the outlet, “Differential rotation of the inner core was proposed as a phenomenon in the 1970s and ’80s, but it wasn’t until the ‘90s that seismological evidence was published.”

Waszek noted that more data and "improved interdisciplinary tools to investigate this further" to determine if there are any effects of the slowing inner core.

Waszek did say, “In terms of that effect in a person’s lifetime? I can’t imagine it means much.”


TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Outdoors; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: astronomy; catastrophism; chandlerwobble; physics; poleshift; potsdamgravitypotato; science
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last
To: Red Badger

I have read that the rotation of the earth has slowed from 25 hours to 24. That is why everyone wants that extra hour of sleep when the alarm goes off.
Maybe we will now get that extra hour back. Think of all the jobs created making 25 hour clocks!


41 posted on 07/08/2024 7:02:06 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ( Government is not reason, it is not eloquence-it is force!--G. Washington)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Then we wouldn’t need Daylight Savings Time any more!...................


42 posted on 07/08/2024 7:05:56 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
the headline

New research finds Earth's core slowed so significantly it reversed course,

\/

immediately contradicted by ...

. .. believe..... could... . ..potentially.. ... debated......not exactly sure .......if ......there are any effects.. ..interpret ....scientists believe..... .... to determine if..... Dr. John Vidale – Dean's Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences – said the new research "nails it.".. \/ hardly.

43 posted on 07/08/2024 7:07:11 AM PDT by cuz1961
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

[Chorus: Eric Clapton & Marcella Detroit]
Oh, I am the flame, feel it touch my heart
And down at my core is the hottest part
I can burn without fuel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZCddJVvljk

“The Core”


44 posted on 07/08/2024 7:11:07 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: P.O.E.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4209892/posts


45 posted on 07/08/2024 7:13:41 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

I cannot see that humans caused this and I cannot see that t his is anything new. Probably been going on millions of years, maybe billions. Interesting to see theorized now, but what affect does the changing movements actually have, if any?


46 posted on 07/08/2024 7:16:02 AM PDT by Reno89519 (I'll go out on a limb: Trump & Gabbard 2024 or Trump & Sanders 2024)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Reno89519

Magnetic pole reversal could cause some difficulties for migratory animals and aviation...................


47 posted on 07/08/2024 7:18:47 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

The entire earth is spinning in one direction. What is the process by which the center would stop and reverse?


48 posted on 07/08/2024 7:24:11 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yesthatjallen

Magnetohydrodynamics?....................


49 posted on 07/08/2024 7:28:04 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: montag813

Yes, I belive he was part of an expedition led by the famous Arne Saknussemm ;)


50 posted on 07/08/2024 7:30:55 AM PDT by protest1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: fwdude
Somehow humans caused this.

It all depends on which way the preponderance of SUVs are traveling.

51 posted on 07/08/2024 7:31:42 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (⭐⭐To the Left, The Truth is Right Wing Violence⭐⭐)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger; 75thOVI; Abathar; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AnalogReigns; AndrewC; ...



52 posted on 07/08/2024 7:57:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

It’s those little electric motors in EVs. Electric motors have magnetic fields. The effects of ALL of those electric magnetic fields have reversed the earth’s magnetic field.

Time to park EVs.


53 posted on 07/08/2024 8:10:16 AM PDT by moovova ("The NEXT ELECTION is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: moovova

You may be correct.

We had a FIAT X1/9 back in the mid 80’s.

The battery was in the front and engine in the rear. So there was a long battery cable running under the body tunnel to the starter.

We had a floating ball compass on the dashboard, and every time we started the car the ball would rotate to align with the battery cable instead of the North/South axis.........................


54 posted on 07/08/2024 8:16:50 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Truer words have never been spoken


55 posted on 07/08/2024 8:22:26 AM PDT by ducttape45 (Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
"Ross Perot wanted to mount huge Jet Engines on the mountains at the equator........................."

Perot was a loon. My idea is much better...and it's green, too.

56 posted on 07/08/2024 8:25:01 AM PDT by Flag_This (They're lying.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple

Certainly not well-written. I wonder if what they’re trying to describe happening is due to the core being a “...plasma behaving as a solid”?


57 posted on 07/08/2024 8:26:02 AM PDT by curious7 (uestion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: SMARTY

Furthest thing from a scientist you will meet, but here goes. It is my understanding that the poles seem to have reversed over millennia. This is inferred from measuring the polarity of rocks laid down in various time frames in the geologic record.


58 posted on 07/08/2024 8:59:11 AM PDT by Bigg Red (Trump will be sworn in under a shower of confetti made from the tattered remains of the Rat Party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

FIAT X1/9.

Oh man, that takes me back...The Wedge.


59 posted on 07/08/2024 9:02:08 AM PDT by moovova ("The NEXT ELECTION is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: moovova

It was a fun car to drive.

When it wasn’t broken.

Spent more time under it than in it.................


60 posted on 07/08/2024 9:07:35 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson