Unveiling Earth's Secret: Core-Mantle Boundary Shift Discovered

In a breakthrough discovery, scientists have identified a rare geological shift at the boundary between Earth's core and mantle, as revealed by satellite data highlighting an unusual change in the planet's gravitational field. This enigmatic transformation, occurring between 2006 and 2008, came to light during a recent analysis of data from a pair of satellites that previously monitored Earth's gravity variations.

Detailed in Geophysical Research Letters, the findings potentially unravel connections between various Earth layers, impacting phenomena like earthquakes and the planet's magnetic field. The discovery used data sourced from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a US-German satellite mission operational from 2002 to 2017. The twin satellites monitored gravitational-field changes by tracking shifts in distance between them.

While GRACE primarily assesses water and ice movements, it detected an inexplicable signal around 2007 off Africa's Atlantic coastline. This anomaly hints that perovskite, a mineral located in rocks deep within the mantle, altered structurally under immense pressure, increasing rock density. The resultant shift possibly deformed the core-mantle boundary by about 10 centimeters, correlating with observed magnetic irregularities from the same period.