Earlier studies have shown the earth has four inner layers: the inner core, core, mantle, and crust. A new scientific finding, however, may change our perspectives on Earth. An additional layer, described as a solid metallic sphere in the core’s center, has allegedly been discovered by scientists. It is solid, not molten.
The inner core of the Earth appears to hold an innermost secret
A solid 400-mile-thick metallic ball has been identified near the center of the earth, according to research published in the journal Nature Communications. This solid layer has different reactions when an earthquake shockwave hits compared to other layers.
Scientists from the Australian National University (ANU) have undertaken research that suggests Earth’s “innermost inner core” may have emerged from a major global event in the past. In 2002, it was observed by two Harvard seismologists, Miaki Ishii and Adam Dziewonski, that the speed of seismic waves passing through the inner core was different from other places. Hence they came up with the idea of an innermost solid core.
Scientists have found that earthquake waves can echo up to five times along the diameter of the earth by using a growing number of seismic stations around the world. This has led them to investigate the inner core of the Earth and deduce an isotropic model of the inner core that includes a discrete anisotropic inner core and a weakly anisotropic outer shell.
These results help us understand the formation of the earth and how it changed over time. They also suggest that the anisotropy could be a fossilized record of a major global event that happened in the past. This research has helped us learn more about how our planet has changed over billions of years, such as how the Earth’s magnetic field grew, making it possible for people to live there.
According to Dr. Thanh-Son Pham of the Australian National University’s (ANU) Research School of Earth Sciences, the idea that the Earth’s deepest core contains a metallic ball was first offered around two decades ago. Further, he stated that now they are providing more evidence to prove this theory true. The researchers at ANU compare it to the back and forth movement of a ping-pong ball.
“By developing a technique to boost the signals recorded by densely populated seismograph networks, we observed, for the first time, seismic waves that bounce back – and forth up to five times along the Earth’s diameter. Previous studies have documented only a single antipodal bounce,”
Dr. Thanh-Son Pham
“This inner core is like a time capsule of Earth’s evolutionary history – it’s a fossilized record that serves as a gateway into the events of our planet’s past. Events that happened on Earth hundreds of millions to billions of years ago,”
Hrvoje Tkalčić (one of the researcher)
When the earthquake that originated in Alaska was studied by scientists, it was found that the seismic waves from this event were seen traveling to the south Atlantic Ocean and back to Alaska. The inner core of the earth is made of an iron-nickel alloy, and its anisotropy was studied by the researchers.
Seismic waves may experience anisotropy in the Earth’s deep core due to differences in the orientation of iron atoms under high temperatures and pressures or the preferred alignment of developing crystals, respectively. Researchers found that seismic waves reflected off the planet’s center repeatedly probed the planet’s interior from a variety of angles.
By looking at how long it took for seismic waves to travel from different earthquakes, researchers were able to figure out that the crystallized structure in the inner core’s deepest layer is probably different from that in the outer layer. This difference could explain why the speed of seismic waves changes depending on the angle at which they enter the inner core.
As per researchers, this metallic sphere in the earth’s core could be the result of a major global event such as a tectonic plate shift that happened many years ago. It is important because it could help life on Earth continue to grow and thrive. As a key piece of the puzzle, it gives us a fascinating look into the past of our planet.
Another Similar Discovery
Two enormous structures were discovered deep inside the earth in the 1970s, and ever since then, they have puzzled experts. Both structures are the size of continents and are located on opposite sides of the earth. Located at a depth of 2900 kilometers, these formations are each over 100 times larger than Mount Everest.
Seismic researchers have found out that these newly found formations are made of a material that is distinct from the rest of the Earth’s mantle. Earthquake-generated waves travel deep through the planet, slowing, deflecting, or dispersing depending on the nature of the material they encounter. Seismometers let scientists record these vibrations and reconstruct an image of the underlying rock.
To better understand the three-dimensional structures along the core-mantle barrier in the sub-Pacific area of Earth, recent research employed a machine-learning system to examine over 7,000 seismic wave recordings. Since the 1970s, geophysicists have known about these strange structures, which they usually call “blobs,” but they still don’t understand them very well.
The blobs, seen from the (a) North and (b) South Poles. The two-toned structures show the shapes of the blob based on the agreement of five different models (brown) and three different models (tan)
“They’re among the largest things inside the Earth, and yet we literally don’t know what they are, where they came from, how long they’ve been around, or what they do.”
University of Maryland geologist Ved Lekic told Eos reporter Jenessa Duncombe
The blobs come from a place hundreds of miles below the surface called the transition zone. This is where the Earth’s rocky lower mantle meets its molten outer core. One of the blobs is at the bottom of the Pacific, while the other is hidden by Africa and the Atlantic. Both are enormous, measuring as long as continents and rising to a depth of around half a mile in the mantle.
If these blobs were on Earth’s surface, the International Space Station would have to detour around them since they are 100 times taller than Mount Everest, as stated by Duncombe. These new enigmatic findings clearly indicate that there are many more mysteries that are yet to be revealed. Could these mamoth structures be home to any kind of ancient civilization?
A common anthropological thread emerges through a comparison of ancient writings and megalithic construction, linking cultures that were formerly thought to be technologically backward and geographically far from one another. Due to the layered structure of the phenomena and the incommensurability difficulty, the Silurian Hypothesis by Schmidt and Frank and the Ultraterrestrial Models by H. E. Puthoff have emerged from a process of elimination that has taken decades to come to light.
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