Some Chinese have even estimated that it might turn in the opposite direction to the surface.
A punchy study. This Monday, Chinese scientists published the results of their research on the leading online journal nature.com. According to their findings, the inner core of the earth (located 5,000 km below the surface) has stopped rotating in the same direction as the rest of the planet. Worse, it might even spin in the opposite direction. A “feat” made possible by the fact that this core floats in liquid metal.
Seismic waves
The movements of this core have been captured through the analysis of seismic waves over the past 60 years. Peking University researchers have thus concluded that the nucleus had stopped rotating in 2009 before changing the direction of rotation.
Consequences ? The days might shorten by fractions of a second or cause changes in the intensity of the magnetic field.
