Unveiling Earth's Hidden Core: Ancient Structures and Metal Worlds

A high-resolution map of Earth's Southern Hemisphere has revealed the presence of an ancient ocean floor that may wrap around the core. This thin but dense layer exists around 2,900 kilometers below the surface, at the core-mantle boundary. Seismic investigations using monitoring stations in Antarctica detected ultralow velocity zones (ULVZs) that suggest the presence of oceanic crust buried over millions of years. The ULVZs could be mountains on the core, some up to five times taller than Mt. Everest. The discovery provides insights into the heat transfer between the core and mantle and the overall processes driving our planet.