Earth’s Inner Core Halt

The Earth's inner core stopped spinning, or may even now be spinning backwards!

The rotation of the inner core appears to have stopped spinning faster than its mantle, a pause of sort perhaps, and could even be in reverse mode, new research suggests.

Based on seismologist’s calculations, “The inner core didn’t actually come to a full stop,” a small imbalance in the electromagnetic and gravitational forces slowed and even reversed the inner core’s rotation. It is believed to be part of a seven-decade cycle.

Earth's magnetic poles have reversed many times in the past, but scientists can't predict when the next reversal will occur. In other words, a magnetic field flip is coming, we just don't know when.

According to the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Earth's magnetic field is rapidly getting weaker, and geophysicists don't know why. The decrease in strength--a startling 10% in the last 160 years--could signal that the magnetic field is starting one of its sporadic flip-flops.

These findings help to explain recent changes. Earthquake data hint that the inner core stopped rotating faster than the rest of the planet back in 2009, but not all researchers agree.

In sum, our Universe is expanding much faster than previously thought, the rate of this expansion may eventually tear the Universe apart, forcing it to end in a "Big Rip". Alternatively, the Universe could 'shrink', decrease or decay, effectively reversing the Big Bang and destroying the Universe in a "Big Crunch'. A third theory is that?the Universe will cool as it expands, eventually becoming too cold to sustain life, described as the ?"Big Chill" or "Big Freeze".

Whatever is the theory, certain researchers suggest that the process of our Universe's demise has already begun...

Food for thought!