A recent study reveals a new, distinct fifth layer of Earth deep inside the core, which could help inform the evolution of Earth’s magnetic field.
The inner core, which was discovered in 1936 by Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann, makes up less than 1 percent of Earth’s volume . Its distance beneath the surface and small size, though, make it difficult for scientists to measure by direct measurements, so instead they study shock waves triggered by earthquakes.
In the new study, the team observed several earthquakes traversing the diameter of Earth — sometimes up to five times — something that researchers had not recorded “in the history of seismology,” said Pham, who noted previous studies documented only a single bounce. They found that the seismic waves passed through the innermost inner core at different speeds than through the surrounding core, depending on the direction of the wave.
Geophysicist John Tarduno, who was not involved in the research, said the idea of an innermost core has been proposed before but this new data substantially strengthens the case that “there is actually an innermost inner core with a different structure from the outermost inner core.”
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