IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v465y2010i7294d10.1038_nature09010.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fast torsional waves and strong magnetic field within the Earth’s core

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas Gillet

    (Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex 9, France)

  • Dominique Jault

    (Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex 9, France)

  • Elisabeth Canet

    (Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, CNRS, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex 9, France)

  • Alexandre Fournier

    (Equipe de Géomagnétisme, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université Paris-Diderot, CNRS, 4 place Jussieu, F-75252 Paris cedex 5, France)

Abstract

Earth's core strength There is no direct way of measuring the magnetic field within the Earth's fluid outer core, which generates the magnetic field that we can measure. Indirect methods of calculating the interior field strength have yielded contradictory results. Observations of Earth's length of day at a period of 60 years have been used to provide an estimate of only ∼0.2 millitesla for the internal field, whereas numerical geodynamo models predict an inner field an order of magnitude larger. Nicolas Gillet and colleagues now use models of fluid flow in the core to resolve this discrepancy. They focus on an unexplained peak in quasi-geostrophic oscillations seen at around 6 years, a product of fast torsional waves generated by intercommunication of angular momentum between the core and the overlying solid mantle. From this they estimate an outer-core magnetic field strength of ∼4 millitesla, consistent with that predicted by geodynamo simulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Gillet & Dominique Jault & Elisabeth Canet & Alexandre Fournier, 2010. "Fast torsional waves and strong magnetic field within the Earth’s core," Nature, Nature, vol. 465(7294), pages 74-77, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:465:y:2010:i:7294:d:10.1038_nature09010
    DOI: 10.1038/nature09010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09010
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature09010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yachong An & Hao Ding & Zhifeng Chen & Wenbin Shen & Weiping Jiang, 2023. "Inner core static tilt inferred from intradecadal oscillation in the Earth’s rotation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:465:y:2010:i:7294:d:10.1038_nature09010. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.