Study Confirms Rotation Of Earth's Inner Core Is Slowing Down, It Began Decreasing In...

The new research provides evidence that the inner core began to decrease its speed around 2010, moving slower than the Earth's surface.

Scientists from the University of Southern California (USC) have confirmed that the Earth's inner core is rotating more slowly than the planet's surface. The ground-breaking research raises important questions about planetary mechanics and may have a significant effect on both the stability of Earth's magnetic field and the duration of our days, Science Alert reported. 

The study published in Nature provides evidence that the inner core began to decrease its speed around 2010, marking the first time in approximately 40 years that it is moving slower than the Earth's mantle. Notably, the inner core — a super-hot, super-dense sphere of iron and nickel—is located over 4,800km beneath our feet.

For the study, John Vidale and his colleagues analysed readings from 121 repeating earthquakes recorded between 1991 and 2023 around the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic. They also used data from Soviet nuclear tests conducted between 1971 and 1974, as well as French and American nuclear tests from other studies on the inner core.