Earth’s inner core may be spinning in ‘opposite direction’, says study

If reports are to be believed, the inner core of Earth seems to have stopped spinning in the same direction as the rest of the planet. The hot iron ball, which seems to be around the size of Pluto, may be rotating in the opposite direction, said media reports citing a research on Monday.

The ‘planet within the planet’, which is roughly 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) below the surface, can spin independently. This is because it floats in the liquid metal outer core.

The new research, which was published in the journal ‘Nature Geoscience’, analysed seismic waves from the repeating earthquakes for the last six decades.


This study conducted by the authors Xiaodong Song and Yi Yang of China's Peking University looked to track the inner core's movements.


The authors of the study said they found that the rotation of the inner core "came to near halt around 2009 and then turned in an opposite direction".

These researchers told AFP that they believe the inner core rotates, relative to the Earth's surface, back and forth, just like a swing.

One cycle of the swing is of around seven decades. This means that it changes direction after every 35 years, the researchers added.

It changed its direction earlier in the early 1970s and the same may happen again in the mid-2040s.

This rotation lines up with changes in what is called the "length of day", the small variations in the exact time it takes the Earth to rotate on its axis, they further said.

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