The eastern part of the inner metal core of our planet, which is located directly under the Banda Sea, is growing in size much faster than its western part, located under the territory of Brazil, reports bigthink.com.
New research has shown that the Earth’s inner core is growing unevenly. Due to this, scientists hope to explain soon its age, as well as learn more about the magnetic field.
The core of the planet is located at a depth of about 5 thousand kilometers. It was discovered only in 1936. Over the years, experts have been trying to establish exactly how it formed and when it happened.
The formation of the nucleus began simultaneously with the appearance of our planet. The process lasted for the first 200 million years. Iron was attracted to the center with the help of gravity, and solid silicate minerals, in turn, formed the crust and mantle of the Earth.
Gradually, our planet cooled down and as a result, in the center, the temperature dropped below the rate at which iron melts. This led to the initiation of the process of crystallization of the inner core.
Today it continues to increase in size by 1 mm annually. After a few billion years, the entire core will completely cool down and this will cause the disappearance of the magnetic field.
Experts noted that the uneven growth is provoked by the fact that heat is sucked out by the planet from one part of the core faster than from the other. Experts noted that the age of the inner core, which formed the very first, is approximately 500 million and up to one and a half billion years.
