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Is Earth’s core lopsided? Strange goings-on in our planet’s interior. – UC Berkeley

A new model of how the inner core froze into solid iron suggests it’s only 500 million years old — one-ninth Earth’s age

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A new model by UC Berkeley seismologists proposes that Earth’s inner core grows faster on its east side (left) than on its west. Gravity equalizes the asymmetric growth by pushing iron crystals toward the north and south poles (arrows). This tends to align the long axis of iron crystals along the planet’s rotation axis (dashed line), explaining the different travel times for seismic waves through the inner core. (Graphic by Marine Lasbleis)
For reasons unknown, Earth’s solid-iron inner core is growing…

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