Coomb t1_iv3iamt wrote on November 5, 2022 at 12:23 AM

Reply to comment by CrustalTrudger in If the inner core is the hottest part of the Earth, hotter than the liquid outer core, then why is it a solid? by Paradigm7657

I don't even think it would be possible for pressure to decrease with increasing depth. Pressure must be continuous unless something like a shock exists, and every additional shell adds some amount of gravitational pressure which is greater than or equal to 0. If somehow a situation existed where pressure were higher in outer layers than in inner layers, the pressure would drive movement and compression of the material in between such that the stress developed was adequate to support the pressure.

mfb- t1_iv3quf8 wrote on November 5, 2022 at 1:32 AM

A decreasing pressure is physically possible on a small scale (imagine a vacuum chamber placed in the center of an asteroid), but I don't see that happening on a planetary scale.