Nuclear explosions helped scientists triangulate the rate and extent of the oscillation.
Scientists have long postulated that Earth’s core doesn’t just spin—it spins faster than the surface does. But in new research published last week in Science Advances, a pair of experts from the University of Southern California (USC) say the core travels more slowly than the outer surface of Earth, and even changes directions about every six years. This movement pattern indicates that Earth’s core actually oscillates, turning decades of science on its head.
“The inner core is not fixed—it’s moving under our feet, and it seems to going back and forth a couple of kilometers every six years,” John Vidale, a USC earthquake researcher involved in the new work, explains in a press release.
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