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Earth’s inner core stopped turning and could go into reverse, study suggests
- lisper 4y ago“The inner core doesn’t come to a full stop,” he said. The study’s finding, he said, “means that the inner core is now more in sync with the rest of the planet than a decade ago when it was spinning a bit faster.” “Nothing cataclysmic is happening,” he added. Just in case you were concerned.
- giantg2 4y agoI wonder if the inner core going in reverse would flip the poles due to its interaction with the outer core. Still not cataclysmic, but potentially problematic for a while. I also wonder if we'll find out in my lifetime.
- zzzeek 4y agothe earth's magnetic poles have already flipped at least 10 times in the past few million years. I recall reading that there could be a long period of increased solar radiation affecting life and causing a lot more cancer during the period that the actual reversal takes place but it's all theoretical.
- giantg2 4y agoI doubt there would be that much extra cancer. The estimates I saw were merely a 25% reduction in field strength. The predictions I saw were more concerned about technology failures. A slight increase in solar radiation seems like small potatoes compared to all the other potential carcinogens we live with, but it does seem like it could be significant for our electronics.
- soco 4y agoI don't understand from the article what "rotating in reverse" would mean. Referring to the crust? If it rotates around the axis just slower than the crust then it would look from here like going on reverse. Or they mean really rotating in reverse in reference to the axis? To some normalized axis assumed stable somehow?
- giantg2 4y agoThey aren't clear, but I assume they mean the inner core would be rotating slower than the outer core and crust. In either case, the rotation would be the opposite of what it had been in relation to the outer core and crust. My understanding is that the magnetic field is a product of the interaction between the inner and outer core. I have no idea how this change would affect the field though. Just a guess.
- sliken 4y agoApparently there's evidence for increases and decreases in speed of propagation. The difference is really small, on the order of 0.1 degrees per year, which is something like 7 miles at the surface and much less at the core. Some models claims it goes from 0.1 degree faster to slower, every 35 years or so.
- pjmlp 4y agoAs if in a cataclysmic situation there would be anything we could do about it.
- mtreis86 4y agoNuke it?
- tappaseater 4y agoA little more cheepnis, please.
- herodoturtle 4y agoCue Aerosmith Ben Affleck romance montage.
- maximus-decimus 4y agoThe movie The Core begs to differ.
- Havoc 4y agoDefinitely the start of a B grade Hollywood movie
- murat124 4y agoThis is literally the plot of The Core -- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/
- ChuckNorris89 4y agoYeah, I loved that movie when I was a kid. In the mid 90s to early 00s there was no shortage of movies where a team of scrappy underdogs were tasked to stop a world ending event.
- tappaseater 4y ago3 large hurricanes bring such cold that it flash freezes on contact. Survivors hide in a library and have to burn all the books to fend of the flash freezing. Effed up symbolism right there. Love those movies.
- iso1631 4y agoI loved that scene (in Day after Tomorrow), they're arguing along the lines of "no you can't burn Shakespeare it's a crime against humanity" or something, then in comes a supporting character wheeling in a ton of tax law books, which of course nobody had any problem burning.
- tappaseater 4y agoThank you for that. I forgot the distinction. Like T-rex eating the lawyer hiding in the toilet in Jurassic Park.
- dTal 4y agoNowadays it's extra-legal billionaire vigilantes with magical powers that save the world. Did we go wrong somewhere?
- qbrass 4y agoBatman's pushing 90 and he wasn't the first rich vigilante.
- rich_sasha 4y agoWasn't there a post a few days ago from the actual paper saying that the core used to rotate a tiny bit faster than the rest of the Earth, and now rotates a tiny bit more slowly? Like, order of fraction of degree per year differences?
- norwalkbear 4y agoIsn't this a world shattering event? Why is no one talking about this? What happens if our magnetic field disappears for a while? The end of the digital age?
- ben_w 4y ago> What happens if our magnetic field disappears for a while? Magnetic compasses stop working, the aurora are visible everywhere except for light pollution, elevated levels of beryllium-10 and chlorine-36, satellites need a bit more rad shielding, otherwise very little.
- graderjs 4y agoNo way man, magnetic field does way more than this: without its shielding our bodies and electronics are damaged by (possibly lethal doses) of radiation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field#cite_ref-MerrillMagnetosphere_25-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field#cite_... If significant parts of the global grid went down, we can't pump oil and water, can't grow food, can't ship freight. We're fucked in that case. Humanity I mean. Nobody knows how to live off the land in most cities, right? Not a good prognosis. Let's hope it does not disappear. Definitely not "very little" !! :P :) xx ;p
- ben_w 4y agoThere is a lot of air between you and space, unlike the moon and space. We'd be fine. And the power grid isn't going to be taken down by just the magnetic field switching off, even CMEs are only a risk to the grid because of how they react with the magnetic field (and even then we could prevent that but for the politics). Plus we could fairly trivially make a replacement magnetic field. The numbers I've seen were for Mars, but the requirements were so small it would be a rounding error for the economy here on Earth.
- graderjs 4y agoThere is a lot of air between you and space, unlike the moon and space. True. But the magnetic field is not insignificant. We'd be fine. False. And the power grid isn't going to be taken down by just the magnetic field switching off, even CMEs are only a risk to the grid because of how they react with the magnetic field (and even then we could prevent that but for the politics). Where are you getting this stuff man? Plus we could fairly trivially make a replacement magnetic field. Hahaha. Yeah right! As if
- BaudouinVH 4y ago>There’s actually disagreement about what the study published this week in Nature Geoscience really shows. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2023/01/25/no-earths-inner-core-is-not-reversing-the-direction-of-its-spin/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2023/01/25/no-earths-i...
- rndmnflnce 4y agoThe Why Files did a video on this... pretty entertaining, and pretty scary if things actually happen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n3fkTq_p0o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n3fkTq_p0o
- 323 4y agohttps://youtu.be/zocutif0cQY?t=49 https://youtu.be/zocutif0cQY?t=49
- KeyXiote 4y ago"Study suggests", I generally avoid or at least read with more speculation as well as source checking with buzz word terminology such as this, facts support evidence, suggestions assume. Also n=1 study "suggests" lack of other supporting material.
- Overtonwindow 4y ago"Nothing cataclysmic is happening,”
- rambojohnson 4y agobs clickbait title