We are all reminded of the plaster-cutting models of the Earth in a grammar school science class, with chips of our planet broken down into simple components of bark, costume, outer heart and inner heart.
In a publication that may have caused these old visual devices to go extinct, scientists with the Australian National University have discovered a possible fifth series, an inner secret field, that has been hidden so far.
Their findings, suggesting that this inner heart may be a sign of a second truly cooling event at some point in the past in our world, are outlined in a new study published recently at the online scientific site, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.
Dr Joanne Stephenson, lead author and PhD researcher in the School of Earth Sciences Research at the Australian National University, explained that studying the structure of the inner heart can help to understand more about the history and evolution of the Earth.
“We have traditionally been taught that there are four main strands on Earth: the crust, the healthy, the outer heart and the inner heart,” she said in a University press release. The idea for another special series was proposed two decades ago, but the data has been largely unclear. ”
Unlike Earth’s mineral-based bark and coat, the inner core is made up almost entirely of solid iron and nickel and spans an area of about 800 miles in diameter. -measure. Its different spinning rate, compared to the planet’s surface, is what scientists believe is the origin of our powerful magnetic field that protects us from dangerous space radiation.
This ball-shaped metallic core is also surrounded by the outer liquid core, which is formed by a nickel iron alloy about 1,355 miles thick.
The inner core of the Earth’s ash has remained a mystery to geologists and planetary scientists, even when they applied the cumulative studies offered in research studies presented by the fields of seismology, geodynamics, physics mining and materials science. This scorching, metal base represents just 1 percent of the total size of our planet and is a great way to learn more about the Earth’s thermal dynamics and evolution.
For the study, Dr Stephenson and her team from the Australian National University, Professor Hrvoje Tkalčić and Professor Malcolm Sambridge, used seismic information from the comprehensive database at the International Seismological Center and they applied it to the “nearest neighbor algorithm,” which measures the distribution or distribution of something over a geographic location.
This inner core appears to consist of east and west-directed iron crystals, distinct from the inner core which has similar crystals pointing north to South.
Dr. Stephenson admits that this new level, about 400 miles from the center of the Earth, is not easy to observe and required special mathematical gymnastics to find it.
“We got around this by using a very clever analysis algorithm to go through thousands of inner heart models,” said Dr. Stephenson. “It’s very interesting – and we may have to rewrite the textbooks!
“We have found evidence that may indicate a change in iron structure, which reflects perhaps two separate cooling events in Earth’s history. The details of this major event remain a mystery, but we have added another piece of the puzzle as it comes to our knowledge of the inner heart of the Earth. ”