Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
Something’s warping seismic waves 1,700 miles underground—and scientists finally cracked the code after decades of guesswork.
A rare form of crystal—post-perovskite—is twisting through Earth’s lower mantle, accelerating seismic waves like a cosmic cheat code.
Seismic waves are speeding up where they shouldn't. The reason? Crystals realigning like dancers in a deep-Earth ballet.
Under crushing pressure and blistering heat, perovskite morphs into something weirder—and it's reshaping how we understand Earth’s interior.
These post-perovskite crystals aren’t just exotic—they’re directional. Their atomic alignment changes how sound waves race through rock.
Convective storms deep within Earth—like an upside-down hurricane of rock—are driving the bizarre crystal deformation scientists just confirmed.
For the first time ever, researchers proved that it's not just mineral change—but the way crystals align—that warps seismic speed.
Representative pic
To simulate the planet’s belly, scientists squeezed synthetic crystals under hellish pressure, revealing secrets once buried 1,700 miles down.
This discovery rewrites our understanding of Earth’s innermost processes—proving that even the most solid parts of our world are always moving.