Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Earth Science

Something Made Earth's Molten Core Reverse Direction In 2010 (sciencealert.com) 44

Posted by EditorDavid from the I-feel-the-earth-move-under-my-feet dept.
ScienceAlert reports: In the molten ocean of iron churning in Earth's outer core, a section deep beneath the Pacific Ocean suddenly reversed direction and started moving eastward against the planet's usual westward flow. This happened in 2010, according to satellite measurements of Earth's magnetic field, and scientists are still trying to figure out what caused it... [I]t seemed to have a large, wave-like structure — as though a chunk of molten core material suddenly thought better of where it wanted to go, surging in the other direction... This finding suggests that there are processes that can influence it strongly enough to alter its behavior in bulk — and that our planet's interior may be more dynamic and variable than we thought.
A new analysis captures what we know so far — and "It's from the roiling, molten, conducting metal at Earth's heart that the planetary magnetic field is generated... vital to our continued existence. It helps keep the atmosphere we breathe in and harmful cosmic radiation out."

Something Made Earth's Molten Core Reverse Direction In 2010 More | Reply

Something Made Earth's Molten Core Reverse Direction In 2010

Comments Filter:

  • That's what we learned from Star Trek. Any time there is an unexplained phenomenon, it was alive and about to swallow everyone whole.

  • Was 2010 a particularly active year for earthquakes and/or volcanoes? There was an eruption in Iceland.

    • Beats another holodeck episode.

    • while we may not know what caused it, we can see what the turbulence manifest itself in these resulting incidences:

      haiti earthquake magnitude 7
      chile earthquake magnitude 8.8
      mentawai tsunami earthquake 7.8
      baja california 7.2
      guatemala sinkhole
      iceland eruption, massive ash cloud, grounding 100,000 flights
      mt merapi indonesia eruption
      pakistan flood
      zhouqu mudslide in china
      russian heat wave
      tropical storm agatha

      • I can't see how those last four (and the Guatemala sinkhole) can have anything to do with this. The first four (the earthquakes) are only marginally less unlikely, unless the plates started shifting in a different direction.

      • How does a surface sinkhole get caused by a change of direction in magma flow, in your mind?

        That's surface erosion. Even in the case of some crazy change in Coriolis effect, it isn't going to cause a local sink hole or mud slides.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      The core is a LONG way from the surface. Volcanoes aren't. The mantle plumes move slowly.

      OTOH, we've known that the magnetic poles were getting ready to switch for decades now. We don't know when or why or how long it will take. This is probably related to that, but we don't have any really good models.

    • It's the year Microsoft ended support for Windows 2000. I don't know if they're related.

  • The earth's rotation spec up (Score:3)

    by jaa101 ( 627731 ) on Sunday May 31, 2026 @11:14PM (#66168894)

    after 2016, when we had our last leap second. The next leap second might need to be negative. I wonder if that's related. I'm talking about the rotation of the crust, but conservation of angular momentum would suggest that a change in the core's would require an equal and opposite change in the rotation of some other part of the earth.

  • It is staggering how much has to come ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Monday June 01, 2026 @02:38AM (#66169000)

    ... together for life to evolve and persist on earth. This is certainly a very large part of the answer to the Fermi paradox.

    • The magnetic field protects us as we are, it is "vital to our continued existence".

      But I think that if necessary, life could well have evolved to protect itself from the extra radiation.
      Better DNA error checking, for example.

      • > Better DNA error checking

        Error checking is only suboptimal if one emphasizes individual-whether organism or trait-longevity. Current levels and mechanisms balance diversity and change with stability and reproductive success.

        • Yes you can see this is in wildlife in areas with high radiation like the Chernobyl exclusion zone, if the animals generation time is short enough then the extra cancer isn't as much of a problem for animals that won't live long enough to get cancer anyway. Current megafauna would not likely do well without the magnetosphere but in an epoch it'd have been hard to tell what killed us all off amongst the newer life forms.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by flink ( 18449 )

        But could DNA or a similar mechanism have evolved in the first place in a high ionizing radiation environment? Simple RNA floating around in an amino acid soup doesn't have any error checking and correction and life had to start somewhere with simpler tools. Also keep in mind we'd have a much less abundant atmosphere, if any without the magnetic field.

        • Wouldn't DNA be protected underwater ?

          "Also keep in mind we'd have a much less abundant atmosphere, if any without the magnetic field."

          Not sure about that: https://www.aeronomie.be/en/annual-report/does-earths-magnetic-field-protect-our-atmosphere
        • It probably could over a long enough period of time. There would be small pockets with lower exposure where it could develop and move to the fringes where it would evolve to better survive the harsher environment. Spend enough time rolling enough dice and eventually the likelihood of even the seemingly most improbable events tends towards 1. It may not even take as long as one might think given anything more complex would need the genes to survive in that environment and the more simple organisms tend to ro

        • Mars still has remnants of an atmosphere even with no useful magnetic field and 1/3rd the gravity.

    • And not only that, some form of that life has to evolve with enough IQ and stick around long enough to invent radio technology.

      • and even then, our solar system may well have ceased to exist by the time their radio emissions eventually reach this location.

  • Completely wrong and misleading headline (Score:5, Informative)

    by Wdi ( 142463 ) on Monday June 01, 2026 @05:42AM (#66169098)

    There was absolutely no reversal of the direction of rotation. There are two liquid layers in the earth core which rotate with slightly different speeds, but still in the same direction. The speed difference is small. The reported change is that recently one layer slightly slowed, and one slightly accelerated, so that now the identity of the slower and the faster layer have swapped.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      Indeed, anyone who can write a headline like that should be prohibited from posting content for a year.

      This being Slashdot, I presume they'll be promoted to head editor instead.

      This site has really just become a massive trolling operation. They just troll us for engagement.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        This being Slashdot, I presume they'll be promoted to head editor instead.

        The headline was clearly written by an editor at ScienceAlert. Although, I agree, someone should have change it to something more truthful.

    • Thanks for this, I, in proud slashdot tradition, did not read the article, but it was my layperson's understanding that it'd have been a bit more dramatic if it had reversed... like a pole flip or something.

      • Exactly, we would have had cataclysmic earthquakes if the summary were correct.

        The poles have shifted dramatically in recent decades and the field has weakened substantially leading to bright auroras in Florida and Hawaii at low KP numbers.

        Models have the North Pole arriving at the Bay of Bengal sooner than anybody would expect. Christmas will be awkward until we change our vocabulary..

        • Models have the North Pole arriving at the Bay of Bengal sooner than anybody would expect. Christmas will be awkward until we change our vocabulary..

          Presents will be delivered by the jolly Buddha and eight tiny elephants?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Gramie2 ( 411713 )

      Thanks, for a moment there I thought that the movie The Core actually got some science right!

  • I always wondered... (Score:4, Funny)

    by greytree ( 7124971 ) on Monday June 01, 2026 @05:46AM (#66169110)
    I always wondered what that old switch in the cellar did.
  • along with all the plastic straws. Stupid climate change.

  • It's the lizard people in the hollow earth messing with us...

  • This is the first stage of the Mole People coming up to take over and declare their edict of only eating sub-surface agricultural products.

    Better get to enjoy beets!

  • Nothing to do with particle accelarators? You know, those 7TeV electromagnets spinning at Ungodly amounts of speed over miles of distance? It's the only plausible thing on this planet that could affect the earth's iron core. But nah, Nothing to do with it, Of course. Brains people use them.

Slashdot Top Deals

A triangle which has an angle of 135 degrees is called an obscene triangle.

Close