Scientists have confirmed that there is a fifth layer inside the Earth, turning human perceptions upside down

Research by the Australian National University shows that there is a fifth layer of structure inside the Earth. This is a diagram of the Earth.

For years, earth science textbooks have said that there are four layers in the earth’s interior, but an Australian study has confirmed that there is a fifth layer in the earth’s interior, which not only overturns people’s perceptions, but may also lead to textbook rewrites.

In the study, a team of researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) used seismic wave data from the International Seismological Centre with algorithms to find evidence of changes in the Earth’s innermost structure, thus confirming the existence of a fifth layer – the innermost inner core – in the Earth’s interior.

Joanne Stephenson, the lead author of the study, pointed out that people traditionally believe that the Earth’s internal structure from the outside to the inside of the crust, the mantle (mantle), the outer core and the continental core of the four layers.

Although some scientists suspected that the Earth might have other structures decades ago, this claim has not been confirmed because of unclear information and other reasons.

To explore this topic, the university team developed a search algorithm that can examine thousands of models of the Earth’s core, combined with the “propagation Time data” of seismic waves in the Earth’s interior, and found a change in the iron structure in the Earth’s core, about 650 km from the center.

This change implies the existence of another layer of structure, as if a new boundary existed in this place. And these changes may also prove that two separate cooling events have occurred in the history of the Earth.

Stephenson said the details of these events remain a mystery, but they are an important piece of the puzzle for understanding this area of the Earth’s core.

Stephenson added, “This research is very exciting and may represent a textbook rewrite that we will have to do.”

According to current data, the Earth’s continental core, the deepest part of the planet, has a radius of 1,220 kilometers. The fifth structure discovered by the Australian National University is within the known continental core, which is similar to the core of the continental core.