Schoolchildren have long been taught that Earth’s composed of four main layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. But a new study suggests their textbooks may be incomplete. Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) discovered a mysterious new layer at the center of the planet: the “innermost inner core.” They suspect it contains secrets about an unknown, dramatic event in the Earth’s history. Geologists first proposed the idea of a fifth layer decades ago, but had previously struggled to detect it. The new study unearthed further evidence by analyzing changes to seismic waves as they travel through our…
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