{"id":37296,"date":"2025-02-13T20:59:46","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T15:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=37296"},"modified":"2025-08-19T16:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T10:50:10","slug":"earth-inner-core-is-undergoing-structural-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-02-2025\/earth-inner-core-is-undergoing-structural-changes","title":{"rendered":"Earth&#8217;s Inner Core is Undergoing Structural Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus :GS 1\/Geography<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A recent study published in Nature Geoscience suggests that the <strong>Earth&#8217;s inner core is undergoing structural changes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About the Study<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Methodology: <\/strong>Researchers used seismic waves (shockwaves from earthquakes) to examine Earth&#8217;s internal layers.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>These waves help visualize the Earth&#8217;s internal structure, similar to how CT scans work for the human body.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Observations Made:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Scientists previously assumed <strong>Earth&#8217;s inner core was solid and rigid<\/strong>. New findings suggest it is softer near the surface.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The solid inner core is being influenced by the <strong>turbulent molten outer core.<\/strong> This interaction might be altering its rotation and affecting Earth&#8217;s day-length.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Earlier, it was believed that the inner <strong>core rotates independently due to interactions with the mantle.<\/strong> The study suggests that this rotation is now slowing down.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About Earth&#8217;s Layers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Earth is a dynamic planet that undergoes continuous changes inside and outside.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Earth is made up of several concentric layers:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Crust<\/strong>: The outermost layer; thinnest (35 km on continents, 5 km on ocean floors).&nbsp; It consists of silica and alumina (sial) on continents and silica and magnesium (sima) on the ocean floors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Mantle: <\/strong>Located beneath the crust, extends from the Moho\u2019s discontinuity to a depth of 2,900 km.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The upper portion is called the <strong>asthenosphere<\/strong> (extends up to 400 km) and is the main source of magma.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The crust and the upper mantle form the lithosphere with a thickness ranging from 10-200 km.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The lower mantle is solid and extends beyond the asthenosphere.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"c2d1aa\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"247\" height=\"235\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/02\/about-earth-layers.png\" alt=\"about-earth-layers\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-37297\" style=\"--dominant-color: #c2d1aa; width:277px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Core<\/strong>: Located beneath the mantle at a depth of 2,900 km.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The core has very high temperature and pressure and It consists of two parts:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Outer core: Liquid state.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Inner core: Solid state.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Made mostly of nickel and iron, sometimes called the <strong>nife layer.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The outer core has been known to be turbulent, it was previously believed that this turbulence did not affect the inner core on human timescales.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"ededee\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #ededee;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"326\" height=\"356\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/02\/interior-of-the-earth.png\" alt=\"interior-of-the-earth\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-37298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/02\/interior-of-the-earth.png 326w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/02\/interior-of-the-earth-275x300.png 275w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 326px) 100vw, 326px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Source :<a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/science-technology\/earths-inner-core-isnt-just-slowing-down-it-may-be-changing-shape\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DTE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent study published in Nature Geoscience suggests that the Earth&#8217;s inner core is undergoing structural changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37323,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37296\/revisions\/37323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}