地球的内部到底是什么?这个问题困扰了科学家们长达半个多世纪,荷兰地震学家探测到一种震颤,它为地球固态核心说首次提供了直接证据。1939年,科学家们第一次确定了地球内核的存在,并于1940年作出假设,设定它是固体。1946年,澳大利亚悉尼大学的凯恩·布伦观察到了地震波穿越内核时迅速加速的现象,从而为地球内核固态理论提供了间接证据。布伦研究了一种称炎压缩波(又名 P波)的震颤,这种波穿越物质时沿波的传播方向平行摇动分子。另一类型的震颤称为横越波或 S 波,它左右移动分子,能穿越固体,但无法通过诸如外核的液体。如果地球内核真是固体,那么地震学家应该能探 What exactly is the interior of the earth? This question plagues scientists for more than half a century. Dutch seismologists have detected tremor, which for the first time provides direct evidence of the solid core of Earth. In 1939, for the first time, scientists identified the existence of the Earth’s nucleus and in 1940 made assumptions that it was solid. In 1946, Kane Buren of the University of Sydney in Australia observed the rapid acceleration of seismic waves traveling through the core, providing indirect evidence of the solid core theory of the Earth’s core. Bureen studied a kind of tremor called inflammatory compression wave (aka P-wave) that shuffles molecules in parallel along the wave propagation direction. Another type of tremor, called transcurrent or S-wave, moves the molecule to and fro, moving through the solid, but not through liquids such as the outer core. Seismologists should be able to explore if the Earth’s core is really solid