Differential rotation of the Earth's inner core has been inferred by several seismic 'body-wave' studies which indicate that the inner core is rotating at a rate between 0.2°and 3°per year faster than the Earth's crust and mantle. The wide range in inferred rotation rate is thought to be caused by the sensitivity of body-wave studies to local complexities in inner-core structure. Free-oscillation 'splitting functions', on the other hand, are insensitive to local structure and therefore have the potential to estimate differential rotation more accurately. A previous free-oscillation study, however, was equivocal in its conclusions because of the relatively poor quality and coverage of the long-period digital data available 20 years ago. Here we use a method for analysing free oscillations which is insensitive to earthquake source, location and mechanism to constrain this differential rotation. We find that inner-core differential rotation is essentially zero over the past 20 years (to within ±0.2°per year), implying that the inner core is probably gravitationally locked to the Earth's mantle.
CITATION STYLE
Laske, G., & Masters, G. (1999). Limits on differential rotation of the inner core from an analysis of the Earth’s free oscillations. Nature, 402(6757), 66–69. https://doi.org/10.1038/47011
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.