00:00 Imagine a world of seething hot metal,
00:04 where iron and nickel dance in a fiery inferno.
00:07 This is the inner core, the heart of our planet.
00:10 But what if this very heart was changing?
00:14 The latest research suggests that the Earth's inner core
00:17 may be slowing down and even reversing its rotation.
00:20 Is this a sign of the end of times?
00:23 Will the Earth come crashing down on itself?
00:25 Let's find out.
00:27 Imagine you have a giant onion,
00:30 and every layer represents a different layer of the Earth.
00:34 The center of this onion, the part you can never reach,
00:37 represents Earth's core.
00:39 It's like a mysterious land that no one has ever set foot on,
00:43 yet scientists have been trying to uncover its secrets for centuries.
00:47 Imagine diving deep into the center of the Earth,
00:51 beyond the crust, the mantle,
00:53 and finally 1,800 miles below the surface,
00:57 where you'd reach the inner core.
00:59 It's a ball of seething hot metal
01:02 made up of solid iron and nickel,
01:04 and it's so hot it glows a brilliant white.
01:07 It's also surrounded by a liquid outer core.
01:11 This mysterious place is unlike anything else on our planet.
01:15 And get this, it's spinning on its own axis.
01:19 The inner core is like a fire tornado that's constantly swirling,
01:23 generating heat and energy from the inside out.
01:26 But why is it so important to study this little piece of the Earth?
01:30 Well, it's responsible for creating our magnetic field.
01:34 This magnetic field is important to study
01:37 because it protects us from harmful radiation from the Sun.
01:41 It's created by the movement of molten metal in the Earth's outer core
01:45 and the spinning of the Earth.
01:47 These movements generate electrical currents,
01:50 which then create the magnetic field.
01:52 It's like a shield that protects us
01:54 and helps us keep our planet healthy and safe.
01:57 But there's still so much we don't know about the inner core.
02:01 For example, how did it form?
02:04 Scientists believe it started to solidify about 1 billion years ago.
02:08 But why did this happen?
02:10 What was the trigger?
02:12 Or, for example, what about the inner core's crystal structure?
02:15 It's thought to be a type of iron called hexagonal close-packed iron,
02:20 but we still don't know if it's actually the case.
02:23 In other words, we may have many theories,
02:26 but unfortunately, there's no way to confirm them, at least for now.
02:31 So how do scientists study the inner core if no one can go there?
02:36 They use seismology.
02:38 Seismology is like a sonic scanner for the Earth.
02:42 You send sound waves through the Earth
02:44 and measure how they bounce back to see what's inside.
02:48 That's basically how we discovered the inner core way back in the 1930s.
02:53 Imagine you're listening to the sound waves with your special seismology machine.
02:58 Suddenly, you hear a strange sound like a "ping".
03:01 It's different from the other sounds you've been hearing, and you can't explain why.
03:06 You keep listening and you hear the "ping" again and again.
03:10 You start to realize that this "ping" is happening
03:13 every time the sound wave hits the Earth's center.
03:16 You study the data more and more, and finally, you figure it out.
03:20 The Earth has a solid core.
03:23 This discovery was a big breakthrough
03:25 and helped us better understand what's inside our planet and how it works.
03:31 Right now, scientists also use something like this to study what's inside our planet.
03:36 When earthquakes occur, waves travel through the Earth
03:39 and bounce off different layers, including the inner core.
03:43 By studying these waves, scientists can learn about the inner core's properties,
03:48 such as its density and temperature.
03:50 They're basically solving a mystery by piecing together tiny clues.
03:54 And every new discovery brings us one step closer to understanding it.
04:00 The inner core is a unique and fascinating part of our planet.
04:04 It's a place where the laws of physics work in different ways than they do on the surface.
04:09 And it's a place where scientists are still trying to unravel its many mysteries.
04:14 And here's one of them.
04:15 For some reason, the heart of our planet is about to stop spinning.
04:20 A new study about this was published in Nature Geoscience.
04:24 It was made by the researchers at Peking University in China.
04:28 It has revealed a huge twist.
04:30 The scientists found that the inner core's spin rate has slowed down significantly.
04:35 It's something that no one expected.
04:38 But according to the results of their study, the slowing down began all the way back in 2009.
04:44 And that's not all.
04:46 Their results also suggest that the inner core may be reversing its rotation.
04:51 That's right.
04:52 This hot ball of iron and nickel that has been spinning around for millions of years
04:56 may be slowing down and changing direction.
04:59 It's like when a spinning top starts to slow down,
05:02 except this is happening in the center of our planet.
05:06 Scientists have been puzzled over the discovery for quite some time now.
05:09 So what does it all mean?
05:11 And why is this happening?
05:13 Well, it turns out that there might be a larger pattern at play.
05:18 The scientists believe that this change in the inner core's rotation
05:22 may be due to the influence of Earth's mantle and the magnetic field of Earth's outer core.
05:28 The mantle and the outer core are affecting the inner core,
05:32 which is causing its spinning rate to slow down and potentially change direction.
05:37 Before this study, scientists thought that the inner core was spinning faster than the Earth's crust.
05:43 However, this new information suggests that the inner core may be slowing down
05:48 due to the gravitational effect of the Earth's mantle and the magnetic field of its outer core.
05:54 But here's where it gets even more interesting.
05:57 When researchers took a closer look at data stretching all the way back to the 1960s,
06:02 they discovered that the rotation of Earth's inner core was consistent from the late 1970s to the early 2000s.
06:09 Before that, they found that another possible slowing down or reversal event may have occurred in the early 1970s.
06:17 It's like the inner core's spin is like a roller coaster ride,
06:21 speeding up, slowing down, and possibly reversing course over a period of time.
06:26 The researchers estimate that these switches occur every seven decades or so,
06:31 which is pretty wild. But why is it happening?
06:35 Unfortunately, we still have no idea.
06:38 The exact reasons for why the Earth's inner core sometimes stops and starts spinning in another direction
06:43 aren't yet well understood.
06:45 However, scientists believe that it may be due to complex interactions between the solid inner core
06:51 and the surrounding molten outer core.
06:54 A lot of different things can be at play here.
06:57 The changes in the temperature, pressure, and composition of the core,
07:01 as well as the movement of material within the core itself, and so on.
07:06 Also, as we said before, the Earth's magnetic field and the gravitational forces from the surrounding mantle
07:13 might also play a role here.
07:15 We need further research to fully understand the mechanisms behind the inner core's rotation changes.
07:21 So, is the world ending? Fortunately, no. Not just yet.
07:26 While the inner core is changing direction right now, it's not the end of the world as we know it.
07:31 And even though findings may seem like a huge deal, life on Earth's surface hasn't been impacted much, if at all.
07:38 In fact, it's just a fascinating part of the Earth's inner workings that we're learning more about every day.
07:44 So, you can say with relief, nothing cataclysmic is happening.
07:49 Moreover, according to Hrvoje Kalsic, a geophysicist at Australian National University,
07:55 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.
08:01 All in all, this new study has added a strange twist to the story of Earth's inner core,
08:07 and scientists believe that there's still much more to discover about this mysterious place.
08:13 Who knows what other secrets lie in the heart of our planet?
08:17 The possibilities are endless, so let's keep researching and enjoy our time on this amazing planet!
08:24 That's it for today! So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
08:30 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
