Researchers have been searching to solve the mystery at the center of our planet from a long time after discovering that there is something other than iron and nickel. Japanese scientists believes that they have established the identity of a ‘missing element’ within the Earth’s Core.
“We believe that Silicon is a major element – about 5% (of the Earth’s inner Core) by weight could be Silicon dissolved into the iron-nickel alloys,” said Eiji Ohtani Lead researcher from Tohoku University.
“We measured the sound velocity of iron alloy compounds at high pressure and temperature relevant to the Earth’s Core,” the researchers wrote in their presentation for the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
It is far too deep to investigate directly, so scientists study how seismic waves pass through this region to tell them something of its make-up. It is mainly composed of iron, which makes up about 85 per cent of its weight and nickel, which accounts for about 10 per cent of the core.
To study the unaccounted five per cent of the core, researchers created alloys of iron and nickel and mixed them with silicon, ‘BBC News’ reported. They then subjected them to the immense pressures and temperatures that exist in the inner core. They discovered that this mixture matched what was seen in the Earth’s interior with seismic data.