THE RIGIDITY OF THE EARTH'S INNER CORE

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K. E. BULLEN

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine and assess, in the
light of recent evidence, the theory lliat the Earth's inner core has
a significant rigidity.
The presenee of an inner core in the Earth is revealed from
observations of the seismie pliase PKP in the « sliadow zone » for
which the epicentral distance A lies in the range 105" < A < 143".
Miss I. Lehmann (r ) in 1936, followed by Gutenberg and Richter (2)
in 1938, atlrihuted these observations to tlie presence of an inner
core; and Jeffreys (3) in 1939 applied Airy's theory of diffraetion
near a caustic to sliow that the alternative theory of diffraetion
round the outer boundary of the centrai core was not capable of
explaining tlie observations in the shadow zone. The existence of the
inner core has been fairly generallv accepted sinee tliis ealculation
of Jeffreys.

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How to Cite
BULLEN, K. E. (1953) “THE RIGIDITY OF THE EARTH’S INNER CORE”, Annals of Geophysics, 6(1), pp. 1–10. doi: 10.4401/ag-5761.
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