Earth’s core may have stopped spinning and changed directions: Study
Heather Hamilton
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Scientists believe the Earth’s core is no longer rotating in the same direction as the planet and may be spinning the other way.
In a new peer-reviewed study published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists revealed an analysis of seismic waves from earthquakes and nuclear explosions that suggests the core, which floats in a liquid metal outer core, “came to a near halt around 2009 and then turned in an opposite direction.”
The study’s authors, Xiaodong Song and Yi Yang of China’s Peking University, said their research suggests that the core may change its rotation every several decades.
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“We believe the inner core rotates, relative to the Earth’s surface, back and forth, like a swing,” the authors told Agence France-Presse. “One cycle of the swing is about seven decades.”
While geophysicists remain divided on the timing of the core’s rotation and any implications of the research, the researchers said they hope their study motivates others to “build and tests models which treat the whole Earth as an integrated dynamic system.”
“These mathematical models are most likely all incorrect because they explain the observed data but are not required by the data,” said Hrvoje Tkalcic, a geophysicist at the Australian National University. “Therefore, the geophysical community will be divided about this finding and the topic will remain controversial.”
Tkalcic has published research indicating the core changes the direction of its rotation every 20 to 30 years.
To date, there is little evidence that the core’s movement affects life on the Earth’s surface. However, the study’s authors noted that they believe there are physical representations of how all of Earth’s layers are linked.
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“These observations provide evidence for dynamic interactions between the Earth’s layers, from the deepest interior to the surface, potentially due to gravitational coupling and the exchange of angular momentum from the core and mantle to the surface,” the study said.