In an advanced discovery, scientists have detected signs of a hidden structure within the Earth’s core with the potential to change the long-standing narrative of what is at the center of the planet. Scientists reportedly saw that the “fifth layer”, apart from the four previously known layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core, changed to the structure of the iron which suggested a new “boundary line”. which extends about 650 kilometers from the center of the Earth.
According to the Daily Mail report, investigators have suspected the fifth layer for more than a decade, but it turned out to be almost impossible to detect. The lead author of the study and geophysicist at the National University of Australia, Joanne Stephenson, is quoted by the media as saying “it’s very exciting” and noted that textbooks may need to be rewritten. now after the discovery of another layer.
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How did the researchers detect it?
The researchers used travel time data for seismic waves traveling inside the Earth and were captured by the International Seismological Center. After that, they used their new algorithm to search through the data to discover evidence of changes in the structure of the Earth’s inner core. Despite being “particularly difficult” to detect small changes, the researchers were able to show that there are two separate cooling events in the history of the planet.
It also implies that in the early years of Earth’s evolution, at least 4.56 billion years ago, the planet went through a dramatic and hitherto unknown fact. Stephenson explained that the details of this “big event are still a bit of a mystery,” but researchers were able to add another “puzzle piece” in terms of knowledge about the Earth’s core. Although the observations were indirect, geologists were able to determine that the Earth’s inner core reaches temperatures of more than 5,000 degrees Celsius and has a relatively smaller surface area, ie it represents only 1% of the total volume. of the Earth.
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