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Corey S Powell (coreyspowell@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-May-2026 09:48:52 JST Corey S Powell

I'm flat-out amazed that we can monitor the currents of molten metal in Earth's outer core, 2200 kilometers underground--but we can. Lately, part of that flow has reversed direction, for reasons unknown.
There's a whole other dynamic world inside the world we see.
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/Insights_into_Earth_s_molten_outer_core_from_space #space #science #tech
In conversation about a month ago from mastodon.social permalink
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1. The molten core, which swirls about 2200 km beneath our feet, generates Earth’s geomagnetic field as it moves. By measuring small changes in the magnetic field, scientists have historically observed the core flowing mainly westwards. But in 2010, it unexpectedly changed direction deep beneath the Pacific Ocean and started moving strongly eastwards. The reasons for this unexplained reversal in the flow of molten material are still a mystery but satellites, including ESA’s Swarm and CryoSat, provided data that has now been analysed and published.
- Minoru Saba repeated this.
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  Corey S Powell (coreyspowell@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-May-2026 09:48:52 JST Corey S Powell
  in reply to
  
  If you could see our planet's inner magnetism, it would look like this geodynamo simulation. Turbulence in the outer core (red/blue) influences the resulting field (orange).
  Abrupt changes down there lead to noticeable "jerks" in the magnetic field that we experience up top.
  https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/Swarm_helps_explain_Earth_s_magnetic_jerks #space #science #technology #esa
  In conversation about a month ago permalink
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  1. Earth’s core as modeled in the numerical geodynamo simulation as part of research into geomagnetic jerks and rapid hydromagnetic waves published as the cover story in Nature Geosciences, May 2018. The magnetic field lines (orange) are stretched, twisted and folded by the turbulent convection producing shear of electrically conducting fluid (red and blue). Hydromagnetic waves are triggered when the shear is misaligned with field lines, and propagate along these lines to the surface of the core where they can focus and cause geomagnetic jerks.
    https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/635/607/195/520/991/original/b52039a651d58a6c.jpg

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