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Something weird is happening to Earth’s inner core

A new study seems to bolster a contentious claim that the inner core’s rotation has slowed

An illustration of the Earth sliced in half to expose a glowing inner core

Scientists have proposed that Earth’s moon-sized inner core revolves independently of the mantle and crust, and that it is now backpedaling relative to those other layers.

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By Nikk Ogasa

Something strange is happening at Earth’s center.

Decades of earthquake data show that Earth’s inner core has been rotating slower than its mantle and surface since around 2010, researchers report June 12 in Nature.