Super-rotation of Earth’s core
p2pnet.net OT News:- The Earth’s core rotates faster than the rest of the planet, says an “unambiguous” finding from a research team at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
It comprises a solid inner core about 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) in diameter and about the size of the moon, and a fluid outer core measuring about 7,000 kilometers (4,200 miles) across.
The inner core plays an important role in the geodynamo – the process that generates Earth’s magnetic field. Understanding how the inner core moves will allow scientists to better understand the geodynamo, says National Geographic News, quoting tomorrow’s Science
In 1996, University of Illinois geophysicist Xiaodong Song and Paul Richards of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, presented observation data for the super-rotation of the inner core.
The original finding was based on analysis of three decades of seismological records, says the National Geographic. Scientists have both confirmed and questioned the theory in the intervening years. Some scientists said the original finding could be a flaw in the data.”
University of Washington in Seattle seismologist Kenneth Creager, commenting in an accompanying opinion piece, says the research `removes any lingering doubt as to whether the inner core is rotating at a different rate than the mantle`.
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See:-
National Geographic News – Earth’s Core Spins Faster Than Surface, Study Confirms, August 25, 2005
August 26th, 2005 at 5:03 pm
What this article fails to mention, is that that Rotation is not constant…
The rotation of the earths core is not a constant, ever going process… It changes, like as in changes directions/ or was it just changes polarity? lol
Every cycle, many many thousands of years… the earth changes its poles! North becomes south, south becomes north! Its not that big of a deal, cept then compases wont work, then they will be backwards… xD
The big problem, is what happens durring the change… Earth basically loses its magnetic field, which leaves us open to all the evil radiation coming from our sun!! Among other things that happen, like birds lossing their way…
It takes the Earth a humanly long time to make this change too… so it would greatly effect human life as we know it… could even kill us.
August 26th, 2005 at 5:11 pm
Does that mean we woudl all float away? hehe
August 26th, 2005 at 5:53 pm
Rawr! Movin’ underground baby!
August 27th, 2005 at 7:06 pm
magnetism and gravity are a bit different. you might lose some functionality that scientists link to the magnetic poles but you wont be flying off the planet.
you’d probably die from radiation anyways so it might be cooler to fly off the planet into space. ;/
August 27th, 2005 at 7:15 pm
it was like armageddon but under the ground. kind of a stupid movie