ESA satellites have discovered a "jet stream" of liquid metal in the core of the Earth

Arrows indicate jets of liquid metal. The diagram also shows the orbits of the three satellites of the Swarm system, thanks to which we managed to detect this phenomenon.

The European Space Agency has published information that an unusual jet stream has been found in the depths of our planet, which lies deep beneath the surface. With the help of satellites, ESA discovered a stream up to 420 kilometers wide at a depth of about 3,000 kilometers. This stream circulates at a speed of 40-45 kilometers per year.

The ESA Swarm satellites , which helped to make the discovery, are designed to monitor the Earth’s magnetic field. The Swarm mission consists of three satellites located in different polar orbits in height from 460 to 530 km. The mass of each satellite is 472 kilograms. Changes in the magnetic field of our planet have been recorded by satellites since 2013.

It is now accepted that the Earth’s magnetic field is generated by currents in the liquid metallic core of the planet. However, back in 1934, T. Cowling showed that the mechanism of generation of a magnetic field by a nucleus does not ensure its stability at all. The question of the origin and preservation of the field is still relevant - there are many hypotheses, but none of them fully explains all the effects of the Earth’s magnetic field.
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Long-term observations helped to find out that the field strength gradually decreases, and in different regions in different ways. On average, over 20 years, the decline was about 1.7%. But in some regions, tensions immediately fell by 10%. There are regions where the indicator, on the contrary, has increased.

However, the theory of the “geomagnetic dynamo” is used by the overwhelming majority of specialists. It is believed that the movement of liquid iron in the outer core is caused by the constant loss of heat by the inner core. As you know, our planet itself consists of several layers. The first is the earth's crust, then the mantle, the outer core, with a fast rotating layer of molten iron and nickel, as well as the inner core, which, according to most scientists, is a huge melted ball of iron. Its temperature reaches several thousand degrees.

No one has yet observed the nucleus, but scientists have proved by indirect methods that it exists and in general terms reflected its structure. Thanks to the satellites, it became possible, after analyzing the magnetic field and its structure, to create a nuclear circuit, where the flows of liquid metal were revealed. “The European Space Agency’s Swarm satellites helped to get the most accurate X-ray image of the nucleus,” the ESA said in a statement. “We not only saw these flows for the first time, but now we understand why they exist at all.”

As it turned out, the rate of such a flow is about three times higher than the flow rate of the liquid components of the external core. And thousands of times higher than the movement of the Earth's tectonic plates. According to experts, the flow rate of the liquid metal is constantly increasing. Since 2000, this figure has increased several times. So far, scientists can not explain the fact of the acceleration of this flow, but this is probably a natural phenomenon.

“At the moment we know more about the Sun than about the core of the Earth. And the discovery of this phenomenon is a step towards obtaining additional information about the internal mechanisms of our planet, ”said one of the participants of the research group, Chris Finlay, a scientist from Danish Technical University.

Previously, the work of another group of scientists was published , which managed to confirm the existence of a liquid metal in the bowels of the Earth. The specialists studied several thousand fragments that remained after cutting of especially large diamonds of high purity. The pieces, which were analyzed, belonged to the 53 largest diamonds. The larger the diamond, the less impurities of nitrogen compounds in it - in most cases this is the case.

As it turned out, these fragments contain inclusions of alloys of iron, carbon, nickel, sulfur. Such inclusions are evidence that diamonds were formed in a medium saturated with metals. Geologists may well say that diamonds of this type are formed in the so-called “pockets” of the mantle, which are filled with liquid metal. There are all the necessary conditions (in particular, temperature and pressure) for the birth of a precious stone.


In the "pockets" of the mantle filled with liquid metal, diamonds can arise and form under the influence of high temperature and pressure. And due to the dynamics of the mantle layers, diamonds sometimes end up in kimberlite pipes

The age and location of large diamonds suggests that the process of diamond formation occurs in the mantle constantly, in very different regions of the Earth. Plus, the analysis of the samples suggests that the liquid metal phases are also not uncommon, they are formed quite often in the mantle.