Earth’s inner core less solid than previously thought —USC News

The surface of the Earth’s inner core may be changing, as shown by a new study from USC scientists that detected structural changes near the planet’s center, published Monday in Nature Geoscience.

The changes of the inner core have long been a topic of debate for scientists. However, most research has been focused on assessing rotation. John Vidale, Dean’s Professor of Earth Sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and principal investigator of the study, said the researchers “didn’t set out to define the physical nature of the inner core.”
“What we ended up discovering is evidence that the near surface of Earth’s inner core undergoes structural change,” Vidale said. The finding sheds light on the role topographical activity plays in rotational changes in the inner core — including changes that have minutely altered the length of a day — and may also relate to the inner core’s ongoing slowing.