Shear Properties of Earth's Inner Core

Abstract

Understanding how Earth's inner core (IC) develops and evolves, including fine details of its structure and energy exchange across the boundary with the liquid outer core, helps us constrain its age, relationship with the planetary differentiation, and other significant global events throughout Earth's history, as well as the changing magnetic field. Since its discovery in 1936 and the solidity hypothesis in 1940, Earth's IC has never ceased to inspire geoscientists. However, while there are many seismological observations of compressional waves and normal modes sensitive to the IC's compressional and shear structure, the shear waves that provide direct evidence for the IC's solidity have remained elusive and have been reported in only a few publications. Further advances in the emerging correlation-wavefield paradigm, which explores waveform similarities, may hold the keys to refined measurements of all inner-core shear properties, informing dynamical models and strengthening interpretations of the IC's anisotropic structure and viscosity. ▪ What are the shear properties of the inner core, such as the shear-wave speed, shear modulus, shear attenuation, and shear-wave anisotropy? Can the shear properties be measured seismologically and confirmed experimentally? Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Volume 50 is May 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.