Earth’s Iron Core Twirls Faster Than Planet
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
By studying pairs of similar earthquakes, scientists have confirmed that the giant iron ball at the center of the Earth is spinning a bit faster than the rest of the planet.
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory analyzed 30 South Atlantic quakes that were measured at 58 seismic stations in Alaska. Comparing the shape and travel times of quake waves as they passed through the Earth, they concluded that it would take 700 to 1,400 years for the solid core to get one full revolution ahead of the rest of the planet. Their research is published in the current issue of Science.
