In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have uncovered signs of a hidden structure in Earth’s core that has the potential to change the ancient story of what lies at the center of the planet. Calling it the ‘fifth layer’ apart from the previously known four layers – the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core, scientists reportedly saw altered the structure of iron in the inner core creating a new ‘ boundary line ‘suggested extending for 650 kilometers from the center of the earth.
According to the Daily Mail report, the fifth layer has been suspected by the researchers for over a decade, but turned out to be nearly impossible to detect. The study’s lead author and Australian National University geophysicist Joanne Stephenson is quoted by the media as saying that “it’s very exciting” and noted that textbooks may now need to be rewritten after the discovery of another layer.
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How did researchers discover it?
The researchers used travel time data for seismic waves traveling through the Earth and recorded by the International Seismological Center. After this, they used their new algorithm to search through the data to find clues to changes in the structure of the Earth’s inner core. Despite being ‘extremely difficult’ to detect the minute changes, the researchers were able to show that there are two separate cooling events in the planet’s history.
It also implies that in the earliest years of Earth’s evolution, at least 4.56 billion years ago, the planet once experienced a dramatic and previously unknown event. Stephenson explained that the details of this particular “major event are still a bit mysterious,” but the researchers were able to add one more “puzzle piece” when it comes to understanding Earth’s core. Although the observations were indirect, geologists were able to determine that the Earth’s inner core reaches temperatures in excess of 5,000 degrees Celsius and is relatively smaller in area, that is, it is only 1% of the Earth’s total volume. matters.
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