All Those Nuclear Tests Decades Ago Have Revealed Something New About Our Planet’s Core
Anomaly detected.
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Scientists have discovered new insights into Earth’s interior by repurposing data from nuclear tests conducted decades ago. A geophysicist from Virginia Tech analyzed seismic waves generated by underground explosions at a French Polynesian atoll between 1977 and 1995, using the consistent blast locations to track how waves traveled through the planet’s outer core over time.
The research revealed that seismic waves did not always take the same amount of time to traverse the outer core, with travel times fluctuating by fractions of a second across the 18-year period. While these variations seem minimal, they are significant for waves traveling thousands of kilometers through the planet’s interior. The findings suggest the outer core contains heterogeneous materials that shift and move, challenging the traditional view of it as a simple pool of molten metal.
The study identified an unusual seismic wave pattern and proposed that massive anomalies spanning hundreds of kilometers may be suspended solid material moving through the liquid outer core. These discoveries could improve understanding of Earth’s magnetic field generation, as outer core movement directly influences this vital planetary feature. The research demonstrates how historical nuclear testing data, despite its destructive environmental legacy, has provided scientists with an unprecedented opportunity to examine Earth’s deepest layers.
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Originally reported by Sciencealert →
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