Submitted by Michael Frankfort @mfrank_76
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Recent research suggests that Earth’s inner core, a solid mass of nickel and iron, may have stopped rotating and could be reversing its direction. Seismic waves from powerful earthquakes have shown that the core’s rotation relative to the mantle has changed over time. From around 2009 to 2020, the core’s rotation appeared to stop, and it now seems to be spinning backward. This phenomenon has been observed before, with a similar pause in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The changes in the core’s rotation are linked to variations in the length of a day on Earth and may follow a pattern of oscillation lasting six to seven decades. However, more data is needed to confirm this longer cycle. This discovery builds on earlier research that showed the core can rotate at different rates than the rest of the planet.