New research suggests that Earth’s solid inner core might not be as rigid as once believed. Instead, it could exist in an ...

Researchers have long struggled to explain how Earth’s solid inner core formed, cooled, and crystallized without undergoing extreme supercooling. But a recent study published in Nature ...

Earth’s inner core has long challenged researchers because seismic waves do not move through it uniformly. Compressional waves generated by earthquakes travel roughly 3 to 4 percent faster along Earth ...

If the core froze relatively recently, the current thermal state at the inner core–outer core boundary indicates how much the combined core might have been below its melting point when the inner core ...

The Earth’s inner core, a solid sphere predominantly composed of iron and nickel, occupies a central role in our planet’s evolution and geodynamo processes. Although hidden beneath thousands of ...

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The solid inner core at the center of the Earth, surrounded by the outer core, mantle and crust. Here’s why: While it is well known that a material must be at or below its freezing temperature to be ...

Cartoon of the Earth with cutaway showing the mantle and inner and outer core. Magnetic field lines produced by the geodynamo extend into space and interact with the solar wind. The iron-rich core at ...

An earthquake in Alaska causing seismic waves to penetrate the Earth's innermost inner core. Credit: Drew Whitehouse, Son Phạm and Hrvoje Tkalčic. Data captured from seismic waves caused by ...