The Inner Core

THE INNER CORE

The inner core is in the center of the earth. It is similar to the outer core in some ways. It is made of nickel and iron and is more than 2400 kilometers in diameter. It is extremely dense and under a lot of pressure from all the earth pressing down upon it. It is solid in its center – even though its temperature is high enough to melt metals. You'd see a lot of cool heavy metals in there, such as palladium, platinum, gold, silver, and even tungsten. It is as hot as the surface of the sun here – at about 5400 degrees Celsius.