Specialists from the Institute of Dynamics of the Geosphere RAS under the leadership of RAS Corresponding Member Y. Avsyuk have experimentally established that there are several unmatched flows in the liquid core of the Earth. The role of the core was played by a vessel with a liquid, rotating around an inclined axis.

The experiments were required to substantiate kinematic models of flows in the Earth’s liquid core. The substance of the core is constantly moving because of thermal and gravitational agitation and also because of precession of the planet’s axial rotation. These movements generate the Earth’s magnetic field.

Video recordings have shown that if the axis of rotation is vertical all the liquid rotates at the same rate as the vessel, regardless of the speed of its rotation. In other cases the vessel and the liquid do rotate in mutual accordance and also the liquid itself rotates not as a single united whole; there are different flows within it.

During the course of the experiment the researchers made step changes to the angle of inclination and the precession rate (from 0 to 0.89 revs/sec). A new rotation regime is established in the liquid within 10-15 seconds. The scientists concluded that the flow of liquid in the vessel that is making a complex rotational motion is far more complex than the sum of flows in only a precessional or only a rotating vessel. The scientists had supposed previously that the Earth’s core was heterogeneous. The experiments with the rotating sphere make it possible to observe this heterogeneity with one’s own eyes. Different parts of the volume of the liquid core of the Earth move in completely different ways and a change in the speed of rotation or angle of inclination of the planet will affect the flows within the core.