Earth’s core appears to have reversed its spin. So what does this mean?

By Scott Sutherland

2023.01.26

The solid metal core of Earth doesn’t rotate perfectly in time with the rest of the planet, and new research suggests that it may have reversed direction.

Seismic waves passing through the Earth have revealed that the inner core of our planet may have stopped rotating over the past decade, and its rotation could be in the process of reversing.

At the centre of our planet is a solid mass of nickel and iron, crushed down by gravity into a sphere roughly 2,400 kilometres wide. This solid core is surrounded by an outer layer of liquid iron and nickel, which generates Earth’s protective geomagnetic field, and beyond that are the layers of the mantle and finally the crust.