….a state of matter somewhere between solid and liquid, study suggests

We’ve known for a while that Earth’s deepest depths, its “solid iron” inner core, isn’t made of pure iron — and now scientists say it might not be solid either.

Simulations by a team of researchers in China suggest our planet’s innards are somewhere between solid and liquid in a “superionic” state.

Yu He, a physicist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-author of the study, said the calculations were “a new starting point to understand the inner core”.

This study, and others like it, Dr He added, might one day help earth scientists solve some fundamental but complex problems, such as when the inner core started to take shape.

But the new study can’t completely explain all the inner core’s quirks.

Full Report

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Read that this morning and the standout for me was:

This information can tell scientists how dense the inner core’s iron alloy is, as well as its stiffness, said Hrvoje Tkalcic, a geophysicist at the Australian National University who was not involved in the work.

I thought to myself, I wouldn’t even begin to try to pronounce his name :)

sibeen said:

Read that this morning and the standout for me was:

This information can tell scientists how dense the inner core’s iron alloy is, as well as its stiffness, said Hrvoje Tkalcic, a geophysicist at the Australian National University who was not involved in the work.

I thought to myself, I wouldn’t even begin to try to pronounce his name :)

Croatian name, pronounced something like herfoyay t’kalchich.

Shopped.

Peak Warming Man said:

Shopped.

But only a little bit.

Hmm

dv said:

Hmm

Yes. It wouldn’t surprise me if thew core of Jupiter was superionic. But the Earth?!

We do know about the solid inner core and liquid outer core from Earthquakes. We also know about quirks in the thin zone between solid and liquid, and between the liquid outer core and the (mostly) solid mantle.

This bit’s interesting.

> For instance, a wave travelling between north and south magnetic poles will ripple faster through the inner core than a wave travelling across the globe from equator to equator — even if they’re travelling the same distance. It’s a phenomenon called seismic anisotropy, and why it happens, no-one’s really sure.

My first guess would be crystalline alignment caused by the magnetic field of the surrounding dynamo.