# Earth's core spinning more slowly
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 27, 2023, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879 "2023-01-27T10:15:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/1 "2023-01-27T10:15:37Z")
I’m surprised that nobody’s posted about the recent news that the Earth’s core may be spinning more slowly:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00167-1](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00167-1)
I’m posting this in IMHO because I’ve read that there’s no consensus among scientists.
Does this have to do with the news several years ago that the Earth’s magnetic poles will eventually flip, possibly within a few hundred years? Here’s a Wikipedia entry on what I think is the same phenomenon:
> **[Geomagnetic reversal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal)**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
>
> A geomagnetic reversal is a change in a planet's magnetic field such that the positions of magnetic north and magnetic south are interchanged (not to be confused with geographic north and geographic south). The Earth's field has alternated between periods of normal polarity, in which the predominant direction of the field was the same as the present direction, and reverse polarity, in which it was the opposite. These periods are called chrons.
> Re...
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/2 "2023-01-27T12:00:00Z")
From that _Nature_ article:
> _Later studies refined estimates of the rate of that ‘super-rotation’, to conclude that the inner core rotates faster than the mantle by about one-tenth of a degree per year. But not everyone agrees. Other work has suggested that super-rotation happens mostly in distinct periods, such as in the early 2000s, rather than being a continuous, steady phenomenon[3](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00167-1#ref-CR3). Some scientists even argue that super-rotation does not exist, and that the differences in earthquake travel times are instead caused by physical changes on the surface of the inner core[4](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00167-1#ref-CR4)._
There is no consensus and no direct observable evidence about the rotational variation in the Earth’s inner core. In fact, there isn’t a universally agreed upon theory for the precise mechanisms that create the Earth’s magnetosphere much less how variations in the speed of rotation alter its composition, and while we know that polar field reversals happen periodically nobody really knows why or how to predict when the next one is imminent.
I’ll start panicking when authorities send a geosubmersible into the mantle in an unobtanium-hulled vehicle crewed by Oscar-winning celebrities mumbling technobabble dialogue about “restarting the core” and not concerned in the least about the massive violations of thermodynamics. Hilary Swank isn’t getting any of that _Cobra Kai_ money, you know!
Stranger
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/3 "2023-01-27T12:40:08Z")
Michio Kaku was on a TV show yesterday, opining that it seems to oscillate on a 70-year cycle. He freely admitted that no one really knows.
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/4 "2023-01-27T12:47:34Z")
As Google notes: “As Earth spins on its axis, **the iron inside the liquid outer core moves around**. The movement causes powerful electric currents to develop in the liquid iron itself. These powerful currents cause lines of invisible force to stretch around the Earth and thousands of miles into space, creating a magnetic field.”
So, the earth’s core produces the earth’s magnetic field, and the earth’s magnetic field prevents the sun’s radiation from killing every living thing on the surface of the earth.
Just thought I’d bring that up. 😳
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### Author:  [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/5 "2023-01-27T15:45:43Z")
> [@Jasmine](#):
>
> So, the earth’s core produces the earth’s magnetic field, and the earth’s magnetic field prevents the sun’s radiation from killing every living thing on the surface of the earth.
Damn. We need to tell @Hatchie about this. I believe he has plans to freeze
the earth’s core.
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/6 "2023-01-27T15:53:13Z")
> [@pjd](#):
>
> Damn. We need to tell @Hatchie about this. I believe he has plans to freeze
> the earth’s core.
Actually, it will eventually happen on its own through the natural cooling process that is already well underway and, when that process reaches the point where the earth can no longer generate its protective magnetic field, it will suffer a “planetary death” in terms of being a vibrant environment that can support life. That should still be very far into the future so, if humans are still around and still have not found a way to settle other suitable planets, they have no one to blame but themselves for their extinction.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/7 "2023-01-27T16:32:57Z")
> [@Jasmine](#):
>
> Actually, it will eventually happen on its own through the natural cooling process that is already well underway…
The Earth is a net thermal energy producer through the decay of radioactive isotopes (predominately 232Th and 238U) to the tune of approximately 2.3 million kW/hr heat radiated into space, and will continue to do that that for the next several billion years before decay drops sufficient to cool the core to a solid state.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/8 "2023-01-27T16:59:11Z")
So, the sun will expand into a Red Giant and burn the earth to a cinder before then? Okay, in that case I won’t worry. LOL
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/9 "2023-01-27T16:59:34Z")
I heard that on Fox news today, their take: See, humans are not damaging the environment, the core of the earth is ‘stopped’ causing all the climate issues, but the libs will most likely propose a tax to help get the earth spinning again.
That was not the exact wording but I’m not far off of how they reported this.
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### Author:  [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/10 "2023-01-27T18:34:46Z")
There might be something going on with the core, but the way it’s being reported doesn’t make sense - if the core is spinning less where has the angular momentum gone?
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/11 "2023-01-27T18:49:21Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> In fact, there isn’t a universally agreed upon theory for the precise mechanisms that create the Earth’s magnetosphere
Interesting. Have we discovered any other planets with a magnetosphere?
_Sweep the leg_
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/12 "2023-01-27T18:49:36Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> Michio Kaku was on a TV show yesterday, opining …
I stopped reading at this point.
> [@K364](#):
>
> if the core is spinning less where has the angular momentum gone?
Could have been expended as thermal energy, but more likely there may be an ongoing exchange of angular kinetic energy between the inner core and the outer one, allowing the rotational speed of the inner core to change up or down once in a while.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/13 "2023-01-27T18:58:52Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#):
>
> Interesting. Have we discovered any other planets with a magnetosphere?
[Mercury](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mercury/in-depth/#otp_magnetosphere), [Jupiter](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/11663/jupiters-magnetosphere/), [Saturn](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/13176/saturns-magnetosphere/), [Uranus](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/uranus/in-depth/#otp_magnetosphere), and [Neptune](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/neptune/in-depth/).
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2023, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/14 "2023-01-27T19:01:22Z")
Thank you for those links.
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2023, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/15 "2023-01-28T05:48:45Z")
Just a guess but I’d say it goes into a change of the moon’s orbit
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### Author:  [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2023, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earths-core-spinning-more-slowly/978879/16 "2023-01-28T12:47:29Z")
[ ](https://i.gyazo.com/6891e276f65a55fbcce43d777e73e73f.png)
Nobody wanted to click on Uranus. 😃