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Earth’s Core

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The Earth’s core is the zone beneath the 2,900-km-deep Gutenberg discontinuity. Based on seismic detection, the core can be divided into the outer core, transition layer and inner core. The core is very dense; its mass accounts for 32.5% of the global mass, but its volume is only 16.2% of the total global volume. Because transverse waves cannot pass through the outer core, it is thought to be composed of near-solid molten materials, and because transverse waves can pass through the inner core, it is thought to be solid.

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© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

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(2020). Earth’s Core. In: Chen, A., Ng, Y., Zhang, E., Tian, M. (eds) Dictionary of Geotourism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_569

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