Tag: Earth’s Magnetic Field

The North Magnetic Pole is moving at an Alarming Rate, does it signal a switch in Earth’s Magnetic Field?

For the past three centuries both physicists and geologists have been studying the Earth’s magnetic field trying to learn its secrets, and to be honest there’s still a great deal that they don’t know. They do know that the field is generated by the rotation of our planet’s liquid core, although precisely how is fuzzy. They also know that the magnetic poles swap positions every 200,000 to 400,000 years although why is still a mystery. Now let’s be fair though, it isn’t easy to study a phenomenon that is hidden from you by 2,000 kilometers of solid rock!

The Earth’s Magnetic Poles do not quite line up with the Physical Poles (Credit: Happy World)

I’ve spoken before about the possibility that the magnetic poles may be in the initial stages of flipping; see my post of 8Feb2017. Now there is further evidence that the process may be starting. The location on Earth’s surface where the North Magnetic Pole pops out of the ground is moving at an accelerated speed and in an unpredictable direction.

For more than a century the North magnetic pole had been firmly positioned in northern Canada, a full 700-800 km from the physical North Pole. Now it’s been long known that the magnetic poles move slightly, a kilometer or two every year, but in the last 40 years the speed of that movement has been increasing year by year. Researchers estimate that the speed of the north magnetic pole has reached 55km per year, see map below.

The Movement of the Earth’s North Magnetic Pole (Credit: Nature)

As you can see from the map the north magnetic pole has in the last 20 years actually been getting much closer to the real North Pole, although if it keeps moving in its current direction it will soon start to pull away again. If the magnetic pole continues to move in its present direction it will enter the Siberian region of Russia within several decades.

Theorists are speculating that a high-speed jet of liquid iron deep beneath Canada may be causing the rapid movement. Another idea is that there are two jets, one each beneath Canada and Siberia and a tug of war between them is to blame for the increased speed with which the magnetic pole is moving. In either case the movement is starting to interfere with worldwide navigation systems.

We All Played with a Compass as a Child (credit: University of Melbourne)

Think about it, humans have used magnetic compasses for centuries as an aid to navigation and even today’s advanced GPS location networks still depend on knowing just where the north magnetic pole is. By the way in case you didn’t know it you smartphone contains a magnetometer for detecting the Earth’s magnetic field, your map app wouldn’t work without it.

In order for these computerized navigational systems to work accurately every five years scientists have been updating the ‘World’s Magnetic Model’ with the latest, precise location for the north magnetic pole. This model has been maintained by both the US Nation Oceanographic and Atmospherics Administration (NOAA) and the British Geological Survey. The next update is due in 2020 but because the north magnetic pole is moving so fast that update is needed right now.

The US/UK World Magnetic Model (Credit: Inverse)

There’s a problem however, because of the government shutdown in the US brought on by the fight over Donald Trump’s border wall the scientists at NOAA who work on the world’s magnetic model aren’t working on anything. They’ve been put on furlough until the impasse ends, whenever that may be. Meanwhile the navigational systems that our modern society depends on are slowly becoming more inaccurate as the North Magnetic Pole continues to move.

New Evidence that the Earth’s Magnetic Field is Flipping

We all know that our Earth has a magnetic field. That’s why compasses work and we know that the field also helps to protect us from radiation coming from outer space. However only a few people are aware of the fact that the Earth’s north and south magnetic poles have flipped many times in the past, and appear to be getting ready to flip again.

By the way, did you know that since a compass’s north pole points north and with magnets opposites attract, then there must be a south magnetic pole up at the actual North Pole! I’ll say that again ’cause I know how strange it sounds. Up at the Earth’s actual North Pole there is a south magnetic pole, that’s why a compass points north. The reverse is also true, at the actual South Pole there is a north magnetic pole.

By measuring the slight magnetic field frozen into igneous rocks as they solidify geologists have been able to determine that the magnetic poles switch positions every couple of hundred thousand years. (Note: The real North and South poles, the axis around which the Earth rotates, are not changing, it’s only the magnetic poles that flip.) The last time the magnetic poles flipped was 720,000 years ago so we are overdue! The picture below is based on current theories on how such a reversal will take place.

Reversal of the Earth’s Magnetic Poles

Also, we know that the Earth’s field is weakening right now. Over the past 150 years, as long as we’ve been measuring it, the Earth’s field has weakened dramatically. And then there’s the South Atlantic Anomaly, a vast region stretching from South Africa to South America where the magnetic field has virtually disappeared and a new magnetic pole looks like it’s starting to pop out! Check out the actual measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field strength in the picture below.

Now a new study of the South Atlantic Anomaly has succeeded in measuring the decline in the field strength over the past 2000 years. Geophysicist John A. Tarduno of the University of Rochester along with Michael K. Watkeys of the University of KwaZulu-Natal have been able to use the archeological remains of iron age huts in the Limpopo River Valley as archeomagnetic samples.

You see, the iron age people living along the Limpopo River had the ritual of burning down their huts during times of drought as a way of ‘cleansing’ them. The heat of the fires caused the magnetic particles in the clay to lose whatever original magnetic orientation they had and then, as the clay cooled the magnetic particles would align themselves to the Earth’s magnetic field at that place and time! This left a record of the changes to the Earth’s magnetic field in South Africa that Professor Tarduno and his colleagues have been able to read. What they have found is that the magnetic field in the past has had periods of rapid decline followed by a slow return. Further evidence that the Earth’s magnetic field is entering a period of flux and perhaps a total collapse leading to a flip. If you’d like to read more about Professor Tarduno’s work click on the link below.

http://theconversation.com/does-an-anomaly-in-the-earths-magnetic-field-portend-a-coming-pole-reversal-47528

So how does all of this effect me, I hear you ask? Won’t I be able to use a compass the next time I go camping? Well there’s a bit more to it than that. The Earth’s magnetic field shields us from the solar wind and the radiation associated with it. As the Earth’s magnetic field weakens we can expect cancer rates, especially skin cancer to greatly increase. The solar wind can also effect both the power grid and the lifespan of satellites in orbit above the Earth. The flipping of the Earth’s magnetic field may take a couple of hundred years to complete and during that time we shall have to learn to live without its protection.