The inner core of the Earth was formed over a billion years ago – Globovisión

The time when the inner core of the Earth is the subject of lively debate among scientists and now a study places it in a temporary arc h ace 1000-1500 formed million years.

The deepest layer of the Earth is a ball of something bigger solid iron Pluto that is surrounded by a liquid outer core, which formation occurred between 500 million and 2,000 million years ago, but scientists do not reach an agreement more precise.

Experts from the Universities of Liverpool (UK), Helsinki and San Diego (United States) analyzed magnetic data of old incandescent rocks and found that makes 1,000 or 1,500 million years there was a marked increase in the strength of the magnetic field of the Earth, according to a study published in Nature.

The increase of the field Magnetic is “a possible indication” of the first appearance of solid iron inside the Earth and the time in which the solid inner core began to “freeze” from the cooling of the outermost layer of molten iron.

paleomagmatismo expert at the University of Liverpool and director of the study, Andy Biggin, said that this discovery “could change our understanding of the interior of the Earth and its history.”

when the controversy about when it first appeared solid in the inner core of the Earth, a process called “nucleation” iron but that dating is “crucial to determine the properties and the history of the interior of the Earth is maintained “.

It also has important implications for how the magnetic field of the Earth , which acts as a shield against harmful radiation from the sun was generated.

The study results “suggest that the core of the earth is cooling more slowly than previously thought, a fact that has implications for all earth sciences”.

In addition to “point As a growth rate of the solid core of a millimeter per year, which affects our understanding of the Earth’s magnetic field, “he added the expert.

The Earth’s magnetic field is generated by the movement of This liquid iron in the outer core, which is located about 3,000 kilometers beneath the earth’s crust. These movements occur because the core is losing heat.

Biggin said that “the theoretical model that best fits our data indicates that the core is losing heat more slowly than at any time in the last 4,500 million years and that energy flow should maintain the magnetic field of Earth for another billion years or more. “

The expert noted that this contrasts with the situation on Mars,” which had a . the strong magnetic field early in its history, but it seems that after 500 million years extinct “

Source: EFE