Chinese scientists Yi Yang and Xiaodong Sun’s study on the slowing down of the Earth’s core rotation, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, created a stir in the press. In their paper, geologists analyzed seismic waves caused by earthquakes and concluded that the Earth’s inner core is. “nearly stopped spinning in the last ten years” and maybe now “starts to turn in the other direction”.

“We’ve been analyzing recurring seismic waves since the early 1990s and show that all orbits that previously showed significant temporal changes have undergone minor changes over the past decade. This model is spherical in nature and assumes that rotation within the core has stopped recently.”says study.

The published article sparked fierce debate about the impact of the Earth’s core on the processes occurring on the planet. Thus, the Washington Post article states that the obtained data suggest the effect of the core on day length and fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field.

“The changes they observed are acceptable, but it’s not very clear what actually happened”– American professor John Vidale shared his opinion with the Wall Street Journal.

By contrast, the New York Times wrote that all this sounded like preparation. “the blockbuster movie that destroyed the world”but it also urged readers not to worry.