Swirls of liquid iron may be trapped inside Earth’s ‘solid’ core

Earth’s strong interior core will not be strong in any case — at the least not right through. As a substitute, it’s a hodgepodge patchwork of strong and liquid that reaches all the best way to the middle.

New analysis based mostly on the faint echoes of earthquake waves bouncing again to Earth’s floor from the depths of the planet means that the interior core is extra diverse than beforehand appreciated. The findings point out that the interior core, which grows a couple of millimeter (0.04 inch) annually because the liquid outer core solidifies, might have grown quicker throughout earlier instances in Earth’s historical past. What’s extra, there could also be swirls of liquid iron trapped contained in the strong core, research senior creator Keith Koper, a seismologist on the College of Utah, stated in a assertion.