An Inner Core Within Earth's Inner Core

[Hervé]

Scientists find oddly behaving 'inner-inner core' at Earth's center

Using the coda waves from earthquakes, geologists have discovered that our planet's core isn't quite what we thought it was.

by Michael Franco @writermfranco
February 10, 2015 12:25 PM PST

The newly discovered core at the center of the Earth has a different polarity than its surrounding core, represented by the purple lines. Lachina Publishing Services Though the seismic waves from earthquakes are best known for their destructive capabilities, in the hands of geologists, they can be powerful tools of discovery. A research team at the University of Illinois has just used the rumbles from quakes to more closely examine the inner core of our planet, and what they found there was quite a surprise. It seems there's another core inside the inner core that measures about half its diameter.

What demarcates this "inner-inner core" is that the iron crystals it contains are oriented on an east-west axis, unlike the iron crystals in the "outer-inner core" which organize along a north-south axis.

"The fact that we have two regions that are distinctly different may tell us something about how the inner core has been evolving," Xiaodong Song, a professor of geology at UI who worked on the project with visiting postdoctoral researcher Tao Wang, said in a University of Illinois report about the findings. "For example, over the history of the Earth, the inner core might have had a very dramatic change in its deformation regime. It might hold the key to how the planet has evolved."

While multiple components of the inner core have been suggested before, this is the first time the difference in polarity has been noted. "Indeed, the layering of the inner core has been suggested more than 10 years ago, at shallow depths of the inner core and at deeper parts of the inner core as well," Song told Crave. "Everyone assumed before the crystal alignment was north-south. But here we found alignment in the inner-inner core to be nearly east-west."

If all this inner and inner-inner talk sounds confusing, perhaps a quick geology refresher is in order. The Earth consists of three layers: the crust where we live; the mantle, a layer of scalding-hot liquid rock; and the core. The core consists of a liquid outer core containing mainly nickel and iron and a solid inner core made up mostly of iron. Even though the inner core is even hotter than its surroundings, the intense pressure at the Earth's center means the inner core is unable to melt and remains solid, according to a National Geographic entry about the topic.

And now we can add another layer to our Earth's composition: the inner-inner core, which is still mostly solid iron, but has a different polarity than the substance surrounding it.

In "unearthing" the inner-inner core, the research team relied on seismic sensors that pick up the waves that penetrate the planet after an earthquake hits, known as the quake's coda. "The earthquake is like a hammer striking a bell; much like a listener hears the clear tone that resonates after the bell strike, seismic sensors collect a coherent signal in the earthquake's coda," the report says.

"It turns out the coherent signal enhanced by the technology is clearer than the ring itself," said Song. "The basic idea of the method has been around for a while, and people have used it for other kinds of studies near the surface. But we are looking all the way through the center of the Earth."

The researchers' findings were published in the journal Nature on Monday.

Update, Wednesday at 9:45 a.m. PT: Added more detail and a response from Professor Xiaodong Song.

[lucidity]

Surely, this is a theoretical model, not a "finding".
Thus it's not a "discovery", it's just a novel hypothesis...
... like 'string theory'...

be happy

lucidity :-)

[Hervé]

Posted by lucidity (here)
Surely, this is a theoretical model, not a "finding".
[...]

My guess is that you are not very acquainted with "empirical" data?

The "theory" is derived to explain observations and these observations do reveal something hitherto hidden... hence, it is a genuine "finding."

[lucidity]

Posted by Hervé (here)

Posted by lucidity (here)
Surely, this is a theoretical model, not a "finding".
[...]

My guess is that you are not very acquainted with "empirical" data?

The "theory" is derived to explain observations and these observations do reveal something hitherto hidden... hence, it is a genuine "finding."

Your guess would be wrong. ;-)
The empirical data are findings.
The speculation of the existance of an "inner core" ... is a merely a theory, not a finding.
And it definitely isn't a 'discovery'.

[betoobig]

The earth in which i live is hollow. I am not saying they didn't find anything... Their findinngs are allright.
Love

[sirdipswitch]

Novel hypothesis? precisely. Smoke and mirrors. All designed to make us think the earth is solid, when in fact it is hollow. Crust, mantle, molten rock, inner mantle, inner crust, empty space, (as in Atmosphere) inner Sun. As in Agartha.

Watchathink all them northern lights is about? It's that inner Sun shinnin out dancin around our atmosfere.

[Hervé]

Posted by betoobig (here)
The earth in which i live is hollow. I am not saying they didn't find anything... Their findinngs are allright.
Love

That's another apparent "problem" which roots in the differentiating of which universe one lives in/on: the physical 3D or a projected "astral" one.

This thread is about this physical 3D Earth, not about anyone else's "astral" universe

Thank you for understanding this.

[Snoweagle]

The centre of every single heavenly body in our cosmos or rather the cosmos contains a NEUTRON STAR

The BBC documentary "The Core" alluded to this briefly though focused on the dense iron for acceptance. Research is being conducted in Japan, India, EU and US to try and develop means of detecting natural neutrinos, which they cannot do until a neutrino is actually created at which point they immediately "absorb" into the nearest elemental particle.

CERN actually fires neutrinos (neutrons)around the large hadron reactor and the only way they can do that is by leaving the positive charge (protons) on the neutron after stripping away the electrons and trapping the charge in powerful magnet (short wavelength scalar fields) fields. If that isn't enough they then "grow" them to four times the original size at virtually the speed of light.

The Cosmos is ELECTRICAL - "though not as we know it Jim"

CERN will be going live on March 15th at full power - I predict now - there will be a collapse in global agriculture as a result - as the energy emitted and absorbed will create another "charged ionosphere" that minimises sunlight striking the earths surface. Effectively a return to the Middle Age "Blight".

So returning to the "guff" for the masses of the great big iron blob in the centre of the planet I do have to say the pictures are pretty. All say "ahhh . . .":-)

[joeecho]

I think of the earth like and atom. Made up of mostly empty space.

Kind of like my brain....

[Jules]

An unusual experience happened to me in Arkansas (a lot of unusual things happen there). I was attending a school there and being transported by bus, a young man sits by me and states, you know of course that the earth is hollow. My father, being a geologist, talked much about rocks on an ongoing basis, as well as carefully explaining that the surface is soil, the middle layers that have been affected by weather, time, and natural occurrences, and the middle of the earth was lava, thus explaining volcanic activity and such. I responded to this man, that no, the earth has layers, that my father is a geologist and explained it to me. He was quite frustrated with me stating, if I can prove the earth is hollow, then will you believe me? I stated, yes, of course. He never explained it to me, but after reading about Admiral Byrd, some Norse dude believing in Thor sailing to middle earth, both with tragic results, I now believe in middle earth. I feel sadness that I could not convey this to the young man. Similar to the man trying to explain fluoride was no good in the water, and I retorted that fluoride prevents cavities. I was so brainwashed and still lacked research and critical thinking. I still remember those people, and wish I could go back to apologize and thank them. This story just refreshed my thinking on the subject.

[DarMar]

yes, Earth is whatever sci-entities conclude latest !

Until they 'find' and pro-o-posal to co-elude..

[Ultima Thule]

Now that the hypothesis of the earth inner core structure that can be confirmed by empirical data can be disregarded at will. What in comparison is there going on for the hollow earth that is more reliable?

UT

[Hervé]

This thread is about this physical 3D Earth, not about anyone else's "astral" universe


Thank you for understanding this.

Let's see...

Who else is going to gobble up a non existent bait about "Hollow Earth" from the OP?

[meat suit]

Posted by Hervé (here)

This thread is about this physical 3D Earth, not about anyone else's "astral" universe


Thank you for understanding this.

Let's see...

Who else is going to gobble up a non existent bait about "Hollow Earth" from the OP?

ok then,
how does science proove these days that the earth is solid ?
in a book by Jan Lamprecht (a feasability study of hollow planets) from the 90s I read that the only experiment that exists to determine the earths mass is the 'Cavendish balance' experiment from 1710...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavendish_experiment
it concludes that a certain mass has to squeeze into the earth... but if that experiment is wrong....
is there a more modern approach??

[Hervé]

Posted by meat suit (here)
[...]
how does science proove these days that the earth is solid ?
[...]

... simply with the different seismic waves from earthquakes that are used for a tomography of earth.

In "unearthing" the inner-inner core, the research team relied on seismic sensors that pick up the waves that penetrate the planet after an earthquake hits, known as the quake's coda. "The earthquake is like a hammer striking a bell; much like a listener hears the clear tone that resonates after the bell strike, seismic sensors collect a coherent signal in the earthquake's coda," the report says.

[meat suit]

that seismic data works also superbly well with a hollow earth....
I mean how do you accurately determine the mass ie. weight within the volume of the earth?

this is worth watching... for this particular discussion start around 20.00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JEgzqAGEHpw

[Hervé]

The Cavendish experiment is still valid.

Newton's laws are still used to swing and sling satellites in and beyond this solar system.

As for the fellow in the above video, he demonstrated he certainly didn't master what he is talking about when mixing up P and S waves properties and carefully avoiding to specify where exactly these deep earthquakes are occurring: they graphically delineate the subducting slabs along subduction zones... and subduction zones are a big thorn in the hind-side of the hollow earth theory.

[noprophet]

Data sets can be modeled in different geometries. You can model three, linear, points on a sin wave just as easily as you can model them on a straight line.

Sometimes you need more data, sometimes data is discarded because people are just more comfortable with straight lines.