For more than half a century, science has confirmed that there is a molten outer core inside the Earth, inside of which an iron core compresses under tremendous pressure. A Nature article published in early February gives new insight into the planet’s interior.
According to new computer models, the Earth’s inner core is a type of super-ionic substance consisting of a mixture of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon circulating inside iron arranged in a lattice-like structure.
The center of the Earth has long been the subject of speculation and science fiction. It is very likely that the amazing pressure and temperatures above the surface of the Sun are in the center. What could be exactly what we know from the conclusions of geologists who analyzed seismic waves in the 1950s.
A 2021 study of seismic shear wave analysis found that the core was still not solid iron, but rather a somewhat flowable sludge-like material consisting of an alloy of iron and lighter elements.
They could not figure out what exactly this alloy could be, because it is impossible to get to the core of the planet with a drill. So the scientists tried to figure out which of the possible combinations of materials could behave in the observed conditions under the given conditions by loading the seismic data found in an advanced simulation.
In a simple solid, the atoms are arranged in a kind of lattice structure. However, at the center of the Earth it turns into a super-ionic alloy, a network of iron atoms in which various elements float freely as a result of the heat flow.
This is completely unnatural. Iron hardening in the inner core does not interfere with the movement of light elements, and their flow remains constant in the core
Said Ju He, a geophysicist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
We have to wait for state-of-the-art technology to be able to reproduce the internal conditions of the nucleus under experimental conditions. Meanwhile, seismology is evolving, and with the advent of the latest sensors, we can identify key parameters used in basic modeling over the next decade.
Hrvoi Tkalcic, chair of the Department of Seismology at the University of Canberra, noted this.
