Discover What the Center of the Earth is Like
Researchers believe they’ve officially found the Earth’s “soft heart” after a long-anticipated seismic wave “has provided insight into the nature of the Earth’s inner core,” according to IFLScience.com.
The goal of confirming the solidity of the Earth’s center is understandably difficult, but Professor Hrvoje Tkalčić of the Australian National University set out to measure the rigidity by studying shear waves, also known as J waves, as they pass through solid objects. This discovery was, what geologists consider, “the field’s Holy Grail,” which Tkalčić recently outlined in Science.
Tkalčić told IFLScience there have been two proposed explanations for this unexpected softness; one involving melted pockets trapped within the core, and one reflecting the structure of iron crystals at the immense pressures the core experiences.
“It turns out – if our results are correct – the inner core shares some similar elastic properties with gold and platinum. The inner core is like a time capsule, if we understand it we’ll understand how the planet was formed, and how it evolves,” Tkalčić said in a statement.
