Scientists put new spin on Earth's core

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August 26, 2005

The Times
By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent



THE Earth’s inner core is rotating faster than the rest of the planet, scientists have found.

An ingenious comparison of earthquakes has revealed that the solid ball of iron and nickel at the centre of the planet is spinning about half a degree more quickly than its upper layers. While the excess spin is very small, it means that over 900 years the very centre of the Earth will complete one more revolution than the rest.

The findings settle a scientific controversy that has raged for nine years, since Professor Paul Richards, of Columbia University in New York, and Professor Xiaodong Song, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, first proposed the core’s odd behaviour.

Their 1996 study was widely disputed, with many researchers suggesting that the apparent extra spin was in fact caused by measurement errors.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1750997,00.html