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Scientists Detect Unexpected Widespread Structures Near Earth's Core

posted by martyb on Saturday June 13 2020, @02:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the good-vibrations dept.

takyon writes:

Scientists Detect Unexpected Widespread Structures Near Earth's Core (Science Daily)

University of Maryland geophysicists analyzed thousands of recordings of seismic waves, sound waves traveling through the Earth, to identify echoes from the boundary between Earth's molten core and the solid mantle layer above it. The echoes revealed more widespread, heterogenous structures—areas of unusually dense, hot rock—at the core-mantle boundary than previously known.

Scientists are unsure of the composition of these structures, and previous studies have provided only a limited view of them. Better understanding their shape and extent can help reveal the geologic processes happening deep inside Earth. This knowledge may provide clues to the workings of plate tectonics and the evolution of our planet.

[...] Using a machine learning algorithm called Sequencer, the researchers analyzed 7,000 seismograms from hundreds of earthquakes of 6.5 magnitude and greater occurring around the Pacific Ocean basin from 1990 to 2018. Sequencer was developed by the new study's co-authors from Johns Hopkins University and Tel Aviv University to find patterns in radiation from distant stars and galaxies. When applied to seismograms from earthquakes, the algorithm discovered a large number of shear wave echoes.

Also at phys.org.

Journal Reference:
D. Kim, V. Lekić, B. Ménard, et al. Sequencing seismograms: A panoptic view of scattering in the core-mantle boundary region [$], Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.aba8972)

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:00AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:00AM (#1007311)

    How do these structures near the core actually affecting anyone? Do tell. Taxpayer money would be much better spent solving climate change or developing a cure for the coronavirus than on useless seismology.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:51AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:51AM (#1007324)

    The advanced humans living in the core have all of the technologies we need.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by LVDOVICVS on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:52AM (1 child)

    by LVDOVICVS (6131) on Saturday June 13 2020, @05:52AM (#1007326)

    This is how we learn.

    Science isn't about instant gratification.

    Ignorance is not useful.

    • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @02:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 13 2020, @02:54PM (#1007446)

      Ignorance is bliss. Why do you think MAGAs are so happy?