The solid inner core is contained within the liquid outer core, enabling it to rotate differently from the Earth itself
Earth’s inner core appears to have stopped spinning faster than its mantle. New measurements suggest that the rotation of the inner core has slowed in recent decades and is now about to reverse direction, spinning more slowly than the mantle. The finding helps to explain recent changes in Earth’s magnetic field and the length of day.
The Earth’s solid inner core is contained within the liquid outer core, enabling it to rotate differently from the Earth itself. Its spin is driven by the magnetic field generated in the outer core, and balanced by gravitational effects within Earth’s mantle.