Earth's inner core seems to be slowing its spin

[iemanja]

Last edited Tue Jan 24, 2023, 12:01 PM - Edit history (1)

In the mid-1990s scientists found evidence that Earth’s inner core, a superheated ball of iron slightly smaller than the moon, was spinning at its own pace, just a bit faster than the rest of the planet. Now a study published in Nature Geoscience suggests that around 2009, the core slowed its rotation to whirl in sync with the surface for a time — and is now lagging behind it.

The provocative findings come after years of research and deep scientific disagreements about the core and how it influences some of the most fundamental aspects of our planet, including the length of a day and fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field.

Three thousand miles below the surface, a scorching hot ball of solid iron floats inside a liquid outer core. Geologists believe that the energy released by the inner core causes the liquid in the outer core to move, generating electrical currents that in turn spawn a magnetic field surrounding the planet. This magnetic shielding protects organisms on the surface from the most damaging cosmic radiation.

Don’t panic. The core’s slowing down isn’t the beginning of the end times. The same thing appears to have happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the study authors at Peking University in China suggest it may represent a 70-year cycle of the core’s spin speeding up and slowing down.

https://archive.is/vU6oo#selection-405.0-507.89

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/01/23/earth-core-slowing/

[Phoenix61]

1. Like a really, really slow heart beat. nt

[maxsolomon]

2. Eventually the Sun expands to engulf the Earth

So whatever.

[GreenWave]

9. Some say we are already in its outer most corona

factoring in the solar wind.

[panader0]

3. I wondered what that weird feeling was.

[Captain Zero]

16. Yeah. I thought I got a wedgies.

nt

[Trailrider1951]

4. Interesting stuff, especially this:

"The core’s slowing down........appears to have happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the study authors at Peking University in China suggest it may represent a 70-year cycle of the core’s spin speeding up and slowing down." Perhaps this is a yet undiscovered cycle of our planet. Very interesting! Thank you for posting this.

[iemanja]

12. You're welcome!

[gratuitous]

5. "The Spinning Magnet"

A book I read during quarantine, "The Spinning Magnet" by Alanna Mitchell had a lot of interesting (to me) information about the earth's magnetic polarity, the evidence of changes in that orientation in old rock, and the possibility that another shift of the earth's magnetic poles could be in the offing (in geologic terms).

[cyclonefence]

7. Whoa

Maybe I'm not such a crackpot after all. I must've heard somebody talking about that book.

[VGNonly]

13. The North Magnetic Pole

was located by Sir James Clark Ross in 1831 on the Boothia Peninsula Canada. The explorer Roald Amundsen in 1903 was the first to prove that the location can shift. It is now thousands of miles further north, moving towards Russia. Ross on a later Antarctic expedition determined the approximate Southern Magnetic Pole.

The theory is that extremely massive amounts of liquid iron flow deep in the earths mantle, changing the magnetic field.

[cyclonefence]

6. I have a crackpot theory

that because the core of the earth is spinning iron, it is essentially a big magnet. The magnet has north and south poles, and the electric charge the spin creates keeps the forces in balance (the incredibly fast rotation of the planet). This balance is responsible for life, which I believe can be broken down to positive and negative forces in all living things (think of the protons and electrons that compose all cells). Slowing of the spin alarms me.

Yes, I am an old lady who did not study physics. I'd prefer not to be disabused.

[iemanja]

8. Sounds like you're on to something.

[Disaffected]

10. Or on something.

[Elwood P Dowd]

11. When do Fox News and republican pundets start blaiming

Joe Biden and "woke" Democrats for this?

[Xolodno]

14. Sorry...

...I recently gained some weight.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. Me too. Perhaps if you and I stand on opposite sides of the planet....

You know....it might just work!

[Xolodno]

21. Well...

...so long as it doesn't tilt the earth back into an ice age, we should be good.

[brachism]

15. Worldwide cellphone usage started going way up around 2009, coincident?

Now a study published in Nature Geoscience suggests that around 2009, the core slowed its rotation to whirl in sync with the surface for a time — and is now lagging behind it.

Worldwide cellphone usage started going way up around 2009, coincident?


https://mms.businesswire.com/media/20210624005926/en/887635/4/SA+Graphic.jpg

Edit: Bummer... the image doesn't show in my reply, only the URL.

[roamer65]

18. 2012!!

[sakabatou]

22. We don't have to bombard the core with nukes, will we?

[Jamastiene]

23. I can't help but think it sounds like the equivalent of

behave or I'm stopping this car.

[LudwigPastorius]

24. The spin cycle is out of whack?

We need to send Aaron Eckhart and Hillary Swank in to rebalance the load.

[iemanja]

25. Somehow I neglected to include the original link

It's there now.

[fescuerescue]

26. I wonder where the energy comes from for it to speed up

As apparently did in the early 1970s.

And that would be a massive amount of energy to speed it up even a little