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Al Mayadeen's correspondent: The Lebanese Army is continuing its investigations and will later announce any information that does not affect the confidentiality of the investigation
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: It has not yet been determined whether the detainees belong to ISIS or another organization
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Around 10 people of different nationalities, including Lebanese nationals, were detained
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Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: We have strong indications that there are martyrs, injuries, and trapped people in the Salah al-Din area
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Citizens should avoid Salah al-Din Street because anyone who approaches it is at risk of being directly targeted
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Reality is that there is a very limited retreat of the vehicles, with the occupation forces providing cover undeer fire up to Salah al-Din Street
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman: Claims that the Israeli occupation has withdrawn from areas in the neighborhoods of al-Zaytoun, al-Tuffah, and al-Shujaiya are false
Hamas: The two delegations stressed that any negotiations must lead to the achievement of our people's goals and aspirations, foremost among which is ending the war and the complete withdrawal of enemy forces
Hamas: A delegation from the Hamas leadership, led by the head of the leadership council, Mohammad Darwish, met with an Islamic Jihad delegation, headed by its Secretary-General, Ziyad al-Nakhalah

Earth’s inner core in 'reverse'

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: News websites
  • 24 Jan 2023 13:54
3 Min Read

NASA explains through nature that the earth's outer core also enables the inner core to spin independently.

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  • Scientists have proposed that Earth’s solid inner core (yellow in this diagram) rotates faster than the rest of Earth. A new study suggests the core’s rotation has recently paused, and is reversing direction. (Getty Images)
    Scientists have proposed that Earth’s solid inner core (yellow in this diagram) rotates faster than the rest of Earth. A new study suggests the core’s rotation has recently paused and is reversing direction. (Getty Images)

The inner core of the Earth is located deep inside and extends for about 746 miles, according to NASA. It is primarily made of pure, solid iron. The inner core is thought to rotate, as evidenced by research, but a recent study contends that it may have "paused" or even reversed its spin.

Earth's outer core

Earth's magnetic field is produced by the liquid outer core that encircles the inner core. NASA claims that as the outer core's molten iron and nickel move, electrical currents are produced that result in a magnetic field. Nature explains that the outer core also enables the inner core to spin independently.

How is the core tracked?

Even though scientists cannot directly track the core, they can analyze seismic waves caused by earthquakes and Cold War-era nuclear weapon tests as they approach the core. That's what study co-authors Yi Yang and Xiaodong Song, both seismologists at Peking University in Beijing, did for their new study, which was published on Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

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Yang and Song discovered that the inner core's rotation "paused" between 2009 and 2020, and may even be reversing "by a small amount," based on their analysis of seismic waves caused by similar earthquakes dating back to the 1960s.

Scientists warn against panic because this isn't the first time our inner core has stopped working. Instead, they believe the change is “associated with a gradual turning-back of the inner core as part of an approximately seven-decade oscillation.”

Read next: NASA discovers second Earth-sized planet in 'habitable zone'

What triggers such a rotation? 

Changes in the speed at which seismic waves travel through the inner core, according to seismologists, coincide "with changes in several other geophysical observations, especially the length of day and magnetic field," both of which are influenced by the inner core's movement, according to research.

While the changes are “valid,” what Yang and Song found may not be exactly what’s happening in the depths of our planet. A professor of earth sciences at the University of Southern California, John Vidale, that wasn’t involved in the study, noted “several competing ideas” about the Earth’s core in The Wall Street Journal.

This includes theories regarding the inner core reversing its rotation more frequently than the 70 years Yang and Song determined and that it stopped rotating in the early 2000s.  “No matter which model you like, there are some data that disagrees with it,” Vidale told The New York Times.

Vidale recently co-authored a study that showed the inner core changed its spin between 1969 and 1974, and that it seems to oscillate “a couple of kilometers every six years.”

Read next: The Earth is Fading

  • Earth
  • NASA

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