Earth's Inner Core Is Suddenly Switching Direction

Bright Side

Did you hear about Earth's inner core? Apparently, it's suddenly switching direction, which is kind of a big deal! Scientists have discovered that the solid metal core at the center of our planet might be rotating in the opposite direction than it used to. This change could mess with our magnetic field and even affect the length of our days a tiny bit. It's still a bit of a mystery, but it's super fascinating how much is going on beneath our feet that we never even think about!  Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00 Imagine a world of seething hot metal,

00:04 where iron and nickel dance in a fiery inferno.

00:07 This is the inner core, the heart of our planet.

00:10 But what if this very heart was changing?

00:14 The latest research suggests that the Earth's inner core

00:17 may be slowing down and even reversing its rotation.

00:20 Is this a sign of the end of times?

00:23 Will the Earth come crashing down on itself?

00:25 Let's find out.

00:27 Imagine you have a giant onion,

00:30 and every layer represents a different layer of the Earth.

00:34 The center of this onion, the part you can never reach,

00:37 represents Earth's core.

00:39 It's like a mysterious land that no one has ever set foot on,

00:43 yet scientists have been trying to uncover its secrets for centuries.

00:47 Imagine diving deep into the center of the Earth,

00:51 beyond the crust, the mantle,

00:53 and finally 1,800 miles below the surface,

00:57 where you'd reach the inner core.

00:59 It's a ball of seething hot metal

01:02 made up of solid iron and nickel,

01:04 and it's so hot it glows a brilliant white.

01:07 It's also surrounded by a liquid outer core.

01:11 This mysterious place is unlike anything else on our planet.

01:15 And get this, it's spinning on its own axis.

01:19 The inner core is like a fire tornado that's constantly swirling,

01:23 generating heat and energy from the inside out.

01:26 But why is it so important to study this little piece of the Earth?

01:30 Well, it's responsible for creating our magnetic field.

01:34 This magnetic field is important to study

01:37 because it protects us from harmful radiation from the Sun.

01:41 It's created by the movement of molten metal in the Earth's outer core

01:45 and the spinning of the Earth.

01:47 These movements generate electrical currents,

01:50 which then create the magnetic field.

01:52 It's like a shield that protects us

01:54 and helps us keep our planet healthy and safe.

01:57 But there's still so much we don't know about the inner core.

02:01 For example, how did it form?

02:04 Scientists believe it started to solidify about 1 billion years ago.

02:08 But why did this happen?

02:10 What was the trigger?

02:12 Or, for example, what about the inner core's crystal structure?

02:15 It's thought to be a type of iron called hexagonal close-packed iron,

02:20 but we still don't know if it's actually the case.

02:23 In other words, we may have many theories,

02:26 but unfortunately, there's no way to confirm them, at least for now.

02:31 So how do scientists study the inner core if no one can go there?

02:36 They use seismology.

02:38 Seismology is like a sonic scanner for the Earth.

02:42 You send sound waves through the Earth

02:44 and measure how they bounce back to see what's inside.

02:48 That's basically how we discovered the inner core way back in the 1930s.

02:53 Imagine you're listening to the sound waves with your special seismology machine.

02:58 Suddenly, you hear a strange sound like a "ping".

03:01 It's different from the other sounds you've been hearing, and you can't explain why.

03:06 You keep listening and you hear the "ping" again and again.

03:10 You start to realize that this "ping" is happening

03:13 every time the sound wave hits the Earth's center.

03:16 You study the data more and more, and finally, you figure it out.

03:20 The Earth has a solid core.

03:23 This discovery was a big breakthrough

03:25 and helped us better understand what's inside our planet and how it works.

03:31 Right now, scientists also use something like this to study what's inside our planet.

03:36 When earthquakes occur, waves travel through the Earth

03:39 and bounce off different layers, including the inner core.

03:43 By studying these waves, scientists can learn about the inner core's properties,

03:48 such as its density and temperature.

03:50 They're basically solving a mystery by piecing together tiny clues.

03:54 And every new discovery brings us one step closer to understanding it.

04:00 The inner core is a unique and fascinating part of our planet.

04:04 It's a place where the laws of physics work in different ways than they do on the surface.

04:09 And it's a place where scientists are still trying to unravel its many mysteries.

04:14 And here's one of them.

04:15 For some reason, the heart of our planet is about to stop spinning.

04:20 A new study about this was published in Nature Geoscience.

04:24 It was made by the researchers at Peking University in China.

04:28 It has revealed a huge twist.

04:30 The scientists found that the inner core's spin rate has slowed down significantly.

04:35 It's something that no one expected.

04:38 But according to the results of their study, the slowing down began all the way back in 2009.

04:44 And that's not all.

04:46 Their results also suggest that the inner core may be reversing its rotation.

04:51 That's right.

04:52 This hot ball of iron and nickel that has been spinning around for millions of years

04:56 may be slowing down and changing direction.

04:59 It's like when a spinning top starts to slow down,

05:02 except this is happening in the center of our planet.

05:06 Scientists have been puzzled over the discovery for quite some time now.

05:09 So what does it all mean?

05:11 And why is this happening?

05:13 Well, it turns out that there might be a larger pattern at play.

05:18 The scientists believe that this change in the inner core's rotation

05:22 may be due to the influence of Earth's mantle and the magnetic field of Earth's outer core.

05:28 The mantle and the outer core are affecting the inner core,

05:32 which is causing its spinning rate to slow down and potentially change direction.

05:37 Before this study, scientists thought that the inner core was spinning faster than the Earth's crust.

05:43 However, this new information suggests that the inner core may be slowing down

05:48 due to the gravitational effect of the Earth's mantle and the magnetic field of its outer core.

05:54 But here's where it gets even more interesting.

05:57 When researchers took a closer look at data stretching all the way back to the 1960s,

06:02 they discovered that the rotation of Earth's inner core was consistent from the late 1970s to the early 2000s.

06:09 Before that, they found that another possible slowing down or reversal event may have occurred in the early 1970s.

06:17 It's like the inner core's spin is like a roller coaster ride,

06:21 speeding up, slowing down, and possibly reversing course over a period of time.

06:26 The researchers estimate that these switches occur every seven decades or so,

06:31 which is pretty wild. But why is it happening?

06:35 Unfortunately, we still have no idea.

06:38 The exact reasons for why the Earth's inner core sometimes stops and starts spinning in another direction

06:43 aren't yet well understood.

06:45 However, scientists believe that it may be due to complex interactions between the solid inner core

06:51 and the surrounding molten outer core.

06:54 A lot of different things can be at play here.

06:57 The changes in the temperature, pressure, and composition of the core,

07:01 as well as the movement of material within the core itself, and so on.

07:06 Also, as we said before, the Earth's magnetic field and the gravitational forces from the surrounding mantle

07:13 might also play a role here.

07:15 We need further research to fully understand the mechanisms behind the inner core's rotation changes.

07:21 So, is the world ending? Fortunately, no. Not just yet.

07:26 While the inner core is changing direction right now, it's not the end of the world as we know it.

07:31 And even though findings may seem like a huge deal, life on Earth's surface hasn't been impacted much, if at all.

07:38 In fact, it's just a fascinating part of the Earth's inner workings that we're learning more about every day.

07:44 So, you can say with relief, nothing cataclysmic is happening.

07:49 Moreover, according to Hrvoje Kalsic, a geophysicist at Australian National University,

07:55 the inner core is now more in sync with the rest of the planet than a decade ago when it was spinning a bit faster.

08:01 All in all, this new study has added a strange twist to the story of Earth's inner core,

08:07 and scientists believe that there's still much more to discover about this mysterious place.

08:13 Who knows what other secrets lie in the heart of our planet?

08:17 The possibilities are endless, so let's keep researching and enjoy our time on this amazing planet!

08:24 That's it for today! So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

08:30 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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