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Earth's inner core is the innermost geologic layer of the planet Earth. It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 km (760 mi), which is about 20% of Earth's radius or 70% of the Moon's radius. [1] [2] There are no samples of the core accessible for direct measurement, as there are for Earth's mantle. [3]
The temperature increases towards the center of the Earth, and the higher temperature of the fluid lower down makes it buoyant. This buoyancy is enhanced by chemical separation: As the core cools, some of the molten iron solidifies and is plated to the inner core. In the process, lighter elements are left behind in the fluid, making it lighter.
Earth's inner core is the innermost geologic layer of the planet Earth. It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 km (760 mi), which is about 19% of Earth's radius [0.7% of volume] or 70% of the Moon's radius. [32] [33] The inner core was discovered in 1936 by Inge Lehmann and is generally composed primarily of iron and some ...
This "innermost inner core" is an iron-nickel alloy ball that, as professor Hrvoje Tkalčić explains, is a "fossilized record" of Earth's ancient history. Until now, science had only recognized ...
Earth’s inner core, a red-hot ball of iron 1,800 miles below our feet, stopped spinning recently, and it may now be reversing directions, according to an analysis of seismic activity.
In the case of the Earth, the magnetic field is induced and constantly maintained by the convection of liquid iron in the outer core. A requirement for the induction of field is a rotating fluid. Rotation in the outer core is supplied by the Coriolis effect caused by the rotation of the Earth.
Cutaway of the Earth showing the inner core (white) and outer core (yellow). Inner core super-rotation is the eastward rotation of the inner core of Earth relative to its mantle, for a net rotation rate that is usually [clarification needed] faster than Earth as a whole.
The existence of an inner core was proposed by Adam Dziewonski and Miaki Ishii to explain the discrepancies in certain fits to travel-time wave models of the inner core. [1] It is contested whether the innermost inner core is a distinct entity, and it is claimed that the data can be explained in other ways.