A donut-shaped region has been found within Earth's atmosphere.

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The dynamics of the Earth's magnetic field is an area of ​​strong interest in the scientific community, says Professor Hrvoje Tkalčić, a geophysicist at the Australian National University.

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Copyright: Image: Jamie Kidston/Australian National University

Scientists from the Australian National University (ANU) have discovered a doughnut-shaped region thousands of kilometres beneath our feet inside the Earth's liquid core, providing new clues about the dynamics of our planet's magnetic field.

The structure inside the Earth's liquid core is only found at low latitudes and lies parallel to the equator. According to seismologists at the Australian National University, this structure has remained undiscovered until now.

The Earth is made up of two main layers: the inner core, which is solid, and the outer core, which is liquid. The mantle surrounds the Earth's core. The newly discovered doughnut-shaped region is located at the top of the Earth's outer core, where the liquid core meets the mantle.

The seismic waves detected were slower in the newly discovered region than in the rest of the liquid outer core, said study co-author Professor Hrvoje Tkalcic, a geophysicist at the Australian National University.

“The region is parallel to the equatorial plane, is confined to low latitudes and has a doughnut shape,” he said. “We don’t know the exact thickness of the doughnut, but we inferred that it is several hundred kilometres below the core-mantle boundary.” Instead of using traditional seismic wave monitoring techniques and observing signals generated by earthquakes within the first hour, the ANU scientists analysed the similarities between the waveforms several hours after the earthquake originated, which led them to make the unique discovery. “By understanding the geometry of the wave paths and how they traverse the outer core volume, we reconstructed their travel times through the Earth, showing that the newly discovered region has low seismic velocities,” said Professor Tkalcic. “The strange structure has remained hidden until now as previous studies have collected data with less volume coverage of the outer core by observing waves that were typically confined within an hour after the origin of large earthquakes. “We were able to achieve much better volume coverage because we studied the waves recurring for several hours after the large earthquakes.”

The discovery sheds light on some of the mysteries of Earth’s magnetic field dynamics, said Dr Xiaolong Ma, one of the study’s authors. “There are still mysteries about Earth’s outer core that have yet to be solved, which requires multidisciplinary efforts from seismology, mineral physics, geomagnetism and geodynamics,” said Dr Ma. The outer core is mostly made of liquid iron and nickel, and the strong movement of the electrically conductive fluid creates Earth’s magnetic field, which protects the Earth and helps support all life, shielding it from harmful solar winds and radiation. Scientists believe that learning more about the composition of Earth’s outer core, including the light chemical elements, is key to understanding the magnetic field and predicting when it will stop or weaken. “Our results are interesting because this low velocity inside the liquid core means we have a high concentration of light chemical elements in these regions that would cause seismic waves to slow down. “These light elements, along with temperature differences, help move the fluid in the outer core,” said Professor Tkalcic. “The magnetic field is a fundamental element that we need to sustain life on our planet.” “The dynamics of the Earth’s magnetic field is an area of ​​great interest to the scientific community, so our results could advance further research into the magnetic field on Earth and other planets,” the research was published in the journal Science Advances.

For interview:

Professor Hrvoje Tkalich

School of Earth Sciences Research

Faculty of Science, Australian National University

Email: [email protected]

For media assistance: Rebeka Selmeczki on +61 497 024 065 or ANU Media on +61 2 6125 7979 or [email protected]

Search method

Simulation/Computer Modeling

Research topic

Not applicable

Article Title

Low-velocity equatorial seismic ring in the Earth's outer core: evidence from the delayed-coda correlation wave field

Article Publish Date

30-August-2024

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