Earth's Inner Core May Have Slowed Down So Much It's Now Moving Backwards, Scientists Grope for Answers

The rotation of the solid iron ball that comprises the Earth 's inner core has slowed to the point that scientists think it’s spinning in a different rotation.

Knewz.com has learned that since seismologists are unable to directly sample it they have arrived at their conclusions by observing the changing patterns of large earthquakes .

The Earth’s core has been an area of fascination to scientists since 1936 when Danish seismologist, Inge Lehmann, discovered it.

Studies pertaining to it gathered impetus over the decades and spawned more than one school of thought among academics.

“Differential rotation of the inner core was proposed as a phenomenon in the 1970s and ’80s, but it wasn’t until the ‘90s that seismological evidence was published” Dr. Lauren Waszek who lectures at the James Cook University in Australia , via CNN News .

The disagreements started when scientists tried to find a way to translate their observations , and this was “primarily due to the challenge of making detailed observations of the inner core, due to its remoteness and limited available data,” said Waszek.

She further noted that “studies which followed over the next years and decades disagree on the rate of rotation, and also its direction with respect to the mantle,” while others favored the theory that the Earth’s core did not rotate at all.

One model emerged in 2023 which suggested that the Earth’s core initially spun faster than the Earth but over time slowed down until it matched the rotation of its surrounding matter.

Its slowing gave weight to the idea that heated liquid around it would eventually move faster than it—essentially making it seem to move in the opposite direction.

“We show surprising observations that indicate the inner core has nearly ceased its rotation in the recent decade and may be experiencing a turning-back,” said Yi Yang , an associate research scientist at Peking University, who had been studying earthquakes since the 1960s.

“When you look at the decade between 1980 and 1990 you see clear change but when you see 2010 to 2020 you don’t see much change,” he went on to explain.

“The inner core doesn’t come to a full stop,” Yi noted. It “means that the inner core is now more in sync with the rest of the planet than a decade ago when it was spinning a bit faster.”

While Yi along with other thought leaders in the field does not know what the phenomena spells for the planet , he indicates that there is no need for panic.

“Nothing cataclysmic is happening,” he said.

For academics like Dr. John Vidale, a Professor at the University of Southern California ’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts , and Sciences, progress has been made.

He is convinced that the planet’s core moves: “We’ve been arguing about this for 20 years, and I think this nails it.”

“I think we’ve ended the debate on whether the inner core moves, and what’s been its pattern for the last couple of decades.”