Abstract
AN investigation of the above effect was prompted by an inquiry into the nature of the earth's interior. The existence of a very definite core of radius half that of the earth seems established beyond reasonable doubt by seismology. The nature of this core is puzzling. Tidal phenomena and the Eulerian nutation demand that this core be less rigid than the crust. The noticeable absence, of the shear wave on earthquake records of quakes sufficiently distant for the waves to pass through the core (and this, despite the presence of very pronounced compressional waves of the same quake on the record), was taken to mean that the core could not transmit a shear wave. A liquid core was therefore quite generally held to fit in with all known phenomena. However, during the past few years several seismic investigators, after exhaustive study of records, feel reasonably sure that the shear wave does pass through the core, but with greatly diminished energy. This would seem to imply either that a fluid under high pressure can transmit a shear wave, or that the core of the earth is a solid of very low rigidity. The idea suggested itself that a solid solution might satisfy this picture of a solid of low rigidity.
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JOSEPH LYNCH, S. Effect of Occluded Hydrogen on the Rigidity of Metals. Nature 140, 363 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140363b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140363b0
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