How do scientists know what the core of the Earth is made of, even though we’ve never drilled anywhere near that deep?
In: Planetary Science
One of the main ways we can predict whats down there is because vibrations move at different speeds, or not at all, through different materials or different temperatures. We have seismic instruments all over the world that pick up vibrations from earthquakes, and determine what they are passing through based on what they pick up.
Combine that with general assumptions based on what elements we commonly find in the crust and what is contained in magma when it surfaces and you get a rough understanding of what the interior is likely made of.
There is of course, plenty of room for error and further learning. Though it seems really wild at a glance, we only have the most crude and surface-level understanding of the earth’s interior, if we were able to actually drill or observe down there we almost certainly would be learning a lot more. One major example, the LLSVP Zones. Seismic data reveals the existence of two gigantic areas right near the core that are very different from the surrounding mantle, but we don’t really know what they are or why they are there.
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