Earth's inner core is a bit squishy than previously thought, suggests new study

Refuting all claims previously made about the Earth's 'solid' inner core, a new study has suggested that the inner core might have a different composition. Published in the journal Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, the study stated that the inner core, earlier thought to be a solid ball of compressed iron alloy covered with a liquid outer core, is actually something that can range from hard to semisoft and even liquid. 

In an interview with Live Science, Jessica Irving, a seismologist at the University of Bristol in England who was not a part of the study said-

"The more that we look at it, the more we realize it's not one boring blob of iron. We're finding a whole new hidden world." 

Earth's 'core' mystery

The core of our planet has been a fancy topic for geophysicists ever since French novelist Jules Verne's work Journey to the Center of the Earth, which came out in 1864, argued that Earth's center is hollow. However, this theory has been quashed as, since the 1950s, scientists have known that the core is not hollow but, is comprised of multiple layers of unimaginably hot lava. It is the same feature of Earth why scientists have not been able to know much about the core as it is impossible for any human or probe to reach such high-temperature depths. 

However, the seismic waves generated from earthquakes do help the scientists in constructing an image of the inner core's working as they measure the intense vibrations. Irving explains that the seismic waves emerge in two ways- straight-line compressional waves and undulating shear waves and each one of them can speed up, slow down or bounce off of different mediums while traveling through different layers of the Earth. 

Live Science reports that the new research, for solving the 'core' mystery, commenced after confusing findings as the experts found through seismic data that not only the core was not soft everywhere, but it was also extremely hard in a few areas beneath the surface. Experts believe that these findings can revolutionise human understanding of our planet's magnetic field. Besides, a deeper understanding of Earth's inner core will also help the experts understand our planet's interior and the magnetism produced from it. 

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