Australian University: Earth’s core looks like a “Russian matryoshka”

As writes Reuters citing scientists from the Australian National University, the latest study of the Earth’s interior using the analysis of seismic waves from strong earthquakes, showed that inside the core of our planet there is a “distinct spherical structure of iron and nickel.” Its diameter is 1350 km (the inner part of the core).

Reminds that the diameter of the blue planet itself is about 12,750 km, and the internal structure of the planet, as was commonly believed, consists of four layers: a rocky crust on the outside, a mantle, an outer core of magma and a solid inner core.

An inner core with a diameter of 2440 km was discovered in the 1930s. But already in the 2000s, scientists suggested that another part was hidden inside this core, separated from the rest and “similar to a Russian nesting doll.”

In an article by scientists in Nature Communications, it is said that the dimensions of the hidden core have now been determined.

They analyzed digital records of ground movement, known as seismograms, from every major earthquake in the past decade.

The outer shell of the inner core is a hard alloy of iron and nickel. Its temperature is estimated to be around 5,500–6,000 degrees Celsius, the same as on the surface of the Sun.

The inner core slowly expands in size due to the solidification of the molten materials of the outer core as the Earth gradually cools, the scientists explained. Latent heat causes convection in the liquid outer core, creating the Earth’s geomagnetic field.