IN WHICH DIRECTION DOES EARTH'S CORE SPIN? THE MYSTERY HAS FINALLY BEEN SOLVED

 

Scientists have been at a loss for centuries to divine the spin direction of the Earth's core.  Now, finally, the puzzle has been solved. 

The Earth's core, made of solid iron, spins in an eastward direction as a faster rate than the rest of the planet. 

The outer core, made of molten iron, instead spins in the opposite direction, westward. 

Halley, more famous for his omonymous comet, already had ascertained the westward motion of the outer core, but he too had doubts as to the inner core. 

The rotation was detected by ultrasensitive seismometers that measure earthquake which pass through the Earth's core, and were alerted to the eastward superrotation of the core itself. 

This seems counterintuitive, but it is not.  It falls under the principle of equal and opposing actions.  The magnetic field pushes eastward, making it spin faster than the rest of the Earth, but it also generates a force in the opposite direction of the liquid outer core. 

The solid core of the Earth is almost of equal size to the moon.  The outer core, composed of an iron alloy is liquid.  In the outer core, the convection driven movement creates the geomagnetic field. 

However, the inner core has had periods in the past in which it spinned in the opposite direction, which in turn caused the outer core to also spin in the opposite direction to our present time, that is, eastward. 

The simulations of such complex physical phenomena was achieved with a supercomputer called Monte Rosa, which is part of the Swiss National Supercomputing Center.  The computer allowed a simulation that was 100 times more accurate than models generated by other computers.

Source : Science Daily/  9.17.13