Earth's Core Spins Faster than Earth

Dreamwalkerofyore writes "The New York Times has an article on a recent affirmation that the earth's core rotates faster than the earth proper. From the article: 'Confirming assertions first made in 1996, a team of geophysicists are presenting data in the journal Science today showing that the earth's inner core... spins faster than the rest of the planet. Over a period of 700 to 1,200 years, the inner core appears to make one full extra spin. That extra spin could give scientists information about how the earth generates its magnetic field.'"

Re:first post

[AliasTheRoot]

dragging on what? the vacuum surrounding the earth?

Re:Karma whore 101

[maxwell demon]

No, ^H deletes from back, and he had an extra space after the ^Hs therefore:

6. Pr Karma?

It is not so simple.

[leuk_he]

And what is causing the spin-down? Is it friction against empty space?
If it is gravitation from other bodies? I would think this would affect the entire earth, not just the outer part of the earth(you can not shield gravitation. )

You can say that tidal friction causes this, but wouldn't the same gravity of the moon create tides in the flowing lava?

Re:Give my regards to the Earth's core...

[deop4s]

Probably something - what will be interesting is if someone can figure out not only the speed, but also the direction of the spin. There's no guarantee that the inner core is actually spinning along the same axis as the mantle/crust. Seems possible that an offset of a few minutes between the axes of rotation might explain why the magnetic poles are not exactly matched with the rotation axis of the earth.

Re:Revolutions

[jsgates]

Eh, wrong. They don't spin around at different RPM's, the outer edge spins faster than the center.

Re:extinctions

[vertinox]

"homo erectus and their ancestors certainly survived many previous reversals. There is no uncontested evidence that a magnetic field reversal has ever caused any biological extinctions."

Homo erectus didn't have a society totally dependant on electronics for it's economics and machines to feed it's population. Of course we'll survive a reversal, but it won't be pleasant for those involved.

There is a God

[Urusai]

Some people doubt the existence of God, but I propose a doctrine of Intelligent Deogenesis. By postulating the existence of a creator who created God, we can account for the Intelligent Design in the characteristics of God Himself. Clearly, a being of God's infinite intelligence is the product of a being of intelligence. Theories that God evolved from monkeys or one-celled organisms fail the BS test, since God is clearly irreducible in his complexity. God simply sprang fully-formed from the mind of Man. Cogito ergo sum, lorem ipso dolor, quid pro quo, alea jacta est, et cetera.