The effects of the solid inner core and nonhydrostatic structure on the earth's forced nutations and earth tides

This paper computes the effects of the solid inner core (IC) on the forced nutations and earth tides, and on certain of the earth's rotational normal modes. The theoretical results are extended to include the effects of a solid IC and of nonhydrostatic structure. The presence of the IC is responsible for a new, almost diurnal, prograde normal mode which involves a relative rotation between the IC and fluid outer core about an equatorial axis. It is shown that the small size of the IC's effects on both nutations and tides is a consequence of the fact that the IC's moments of inertia are less than 1/1000 of the entire earth's.