Discover a world filled with snow falling inside the Earth

Strange signals from deep within the Earth have helped scientists identify a utopian world 3,000 km below the surface where silicon-rich snow falls.

Graphic image depicting a world with “snow” falling inside the Earth

Graphic image depicting a world with “snow” falling inside the Earth – (Photo: UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO).

According to geologist Suyu Fu of the University of Tokyo (Japan), a member of the research team, they recreated the conditions inside the Earth’s outer core in the laboratory to test the hypothesis of “snow” The silicon falls back towards the coating and is deposited in particles “River” odd.

Doubt comes from work seismic waves obtained from the depths of the Earth are often inconsistent. One of the places causing this “noise” is low density material region about 3,000 km below the surface, between the outer core rich in liquid iron alloys and the mantle, according to a study cited in the journal Science alert.

New research suggests that if silicon and hydrogen are the two main light elements in the outer core, then the phenomenon of silicon-rich snow-like material falling into the mantle could occur.

The laboratory results also show that under conditions of pressure and temperature similar to those in the Earth’s outer core, silicon-rich snow can form and “fly” through the denser layer of liquid iron to accumulate in the boundary region, creating elements that interfere with seismic waves. .

The movement of the outer core controls our planet’s magnetic field – an armor that protects against harmful cosmic rays and solar weather. It is therefore important to better understand this deep region, how it moves and interacts with the mantle, to predict the future behavior of the Earth’s magnetic field.

The research has just been published in the scientific journal Nature.

Article source: NLD