Underneath our feet, deep down below the Earth’s crust and its other layers lies the core, or where the planet’s magnetic fields are generated. However, experts now say it’s changing and there might be a new layer to count amongst the others.
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00:00 [Music]
00:03 Underneath our feet, deep down below the Earth's crust and its other layers, lies the core,
00:07 or where the planet's magnetic fields are generated.
00:10 However, experts now say it's changing, and there might be a new layer to count amongst the others.
00:15 Researchers from the US, South Korea, and Germany say,
00:18 water could be making its way deep down into the center-most layers of our planet.
00:22 When it trickles down some 1,800 miles, it eventually reaches the core-mantle boundary,
00:27 mixing with silicon in the core and becoming silica.
00:30 This process creates a somewhat new layer, one that is both rich in hydrogen yet having very little silicon.
00:35 And they say it could change the way we think about how material transits from the core to the mantle,
00:40 with the researchers writing in their study that this quote,
00:43 "points to a far more dynamic core-mantle interaction, suggesting substantial material exchange."
00:48 This is in contrast to previous studies, which suggested there wasn't much of a transfer,
00:52 and means this is turning what we thought we knew about the inner workings of our planet, completely, on its head.
00:58 [ Music ]