Scientists from the Ural Federal University (UrFU) together with colleagues from Moscow State University. Lomonosov found that random changes in the Earth’s rotation rate affect large-scale movements in its liquid core. Such changes in velocity can trigger tectonic activity that causes earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. This was reported to socialbites.ca in UrFU.
The team investigated the response of a viscous fluid flow in a spherical layer (the space between two nested concentric spheres) to random external influences.
“In our study, we only considered two types of flows that occur during the rotation of the inner sphere and when both spheres rotate with the same unidirectional velocities. The value of the rotational speed of the inner sphere was subjected to “white” noise – random deviations of the angular rotational speed from the mean values over time. Calculations have shown that the response to noise (changes in flow parameters) depends on how the flow is formed – with the rotation of the inner sphere alone or the rotation of both spheres, ”said Maria Gritsevich socialbites.ca, senior researcher at UrFU.
The numerical results were confirmed by the data obtained in the experimental setup of the Mechanics Institute of Moscow State University. Until now, when modeling such phenomena, science was led by an approach in which the speed of Earth’s rotation changes precisely periodically over time. Scientists of the Ural Federal University studied the change in rotation speed under the influence of random, as well as very small deviations. According to them, the true rotation of the Earth takes place somewhere “in the middle” and its true nature is still unknown.