Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) have detected signs of a hidden structure inside the core of the Earth.
Joanne Stephenson, author of the study, said, “It’s very exciting – and might mean we have to re-write the textbooks!”
The planet Earth was thought to be made up of four layers; the inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust. But now researchers say Earth’s inner core may have one more inner core within it.
Although the team’s findings are new, the idea of this new layer was proposed a couple of decades ago as well. However, the “data was very unclear,” Stephenson pointed out.
How they detected this fifth layer?
Researchers discovered this using travel time data for seismic waves traveling inside the Earth captured by the International Seismological Centre. Researchers used an algorithm to determine how seismic waves traveled through the Earth’s inner core.
“We found evidence that may indicate a change in the structure of iron, which suggests perhaps two separate cooling events in Earth’s history,” Stephenson said.
Although it is a great discovery, a lot more research is required before the team’s conclusions can be fully confirmed.
