Something strange is happening at Earth’s center.
Decades of earthquake data show that Earth’s inner core has been rotating slower than its mantle and surface since around 2010, researchers report June 12 in Nature. The study appears to confirm a controversial finding from last year that the inner core may have reversed its rotation relative to the mantle and surface, a shift that might occur every 35 years or so (SN: 1/23/23).
The new study also suggests that something has been interfering with the most recent turnaround, says geophysicist John Vidale of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “It’s going back more slowly than it was coming forward.”
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