Magnetic north shifting by 40 miles a year


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The magnetic pole is moving faster than at any time in human history, causing major problems for navigation and migratory wildlife.

The magnetic north pole is currently shifting at a faster rate than at any time in human history ? almost 40 miles a year ? and some experts believe that it may be the beginning of a complete pole reversal.

The changes are already beginning to cause major problems for aviation, navigation and migratory animals which use the Earth's magnetic field to orient themselves. Some airports have even had to change the names of their runways to better correspond to their current direction relative to magnetic north.

Ever since the magnetic north pole was first discovered in 1831, geologists have been tracking its progress. Unlike true north (which is marked by the Earth's axis), magnetic north is constantly on the move due to changes in the planet's molten core, which contains iron. Throughout most of recorded history, the pole has been positioned at or around Canada's icy Ellesmere Island, but if it keeps moving at its current rate, it won't be long before it sits above Russia instead.

The thing that really makes the pole's current movement so unusual, however, is the speed that it is shifting. In the last decade alone, movement has increased by a third, throwing off compasses by roughly one degree every five years.

Changes that fast have already caused major headaches for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Tampa International Airport in Florida has just spent a month renaming all of its runways, which are named after the degree at which they point on a compass. Similar changes were recently made to runways at Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, and across the country runways now need to be renamed at least once every five years.

The shifting pole may also become a grave concern for migratory wildlife, such as birds, turtles and other sea creatures which use Earth's magnetic field to navigate over great distances. It's unclear how capable these animals are of recalibrating their navigational instincts to compensate for the changes.

The rapid shifting of the pole's position has even prompted some experts to speculate that the Earth's entire magnetic field may be preparing to "flip," whereby all compasses completely invert and point south instead of north. It may sound radical, but in geological time, pole reversals are actually quite common. Though they typically occur once every 400,000 years or so, it's been 780,000 years since the last flip.

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And, no doubt, the eviros will blame it on human induced global....errr ahhh.- (new name)...."climate change" :p

It's only apocalyptic anthropogenic global warming when they're trying to get more funding or gain public support by fear mongering; once they're asked for evidence it changes to "climate change"...

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I wonder what happens if the poles do reverse? I can remember reading something on the subject as well that apparently said it'd wind up with an ice age but I don't know myself what would happen. Amazing to think that change like this is happening but it rarely gets coverage in the media.

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The shifting pole may also become a grave concern for migratory wildlife, such as birds, turtles and other sea creatures which use Earth's magnetic field to navigate over great distances. It's unclear how capable these animals are of recalibrating their navigational instincts to compensate for the changes.

I imagine if this has always been part of nature, whatever happens will be typical and expected... the ones who can survive will pass on that strength and adaptability to later generations, the weaker ones won't make it.

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Does that correspond with december 21st, 2012? I know it?s one of the possibilities mentioned along with the apocalypse. That would make more sense if the Maya discovered the exact or approximative date of the reversal of magnetic poles rather than the date of the apocalypse... actually there were some very advanced physicists in that time. Even the Greek have always been ahead of us in that time (for instance, they knew the Earth was round a looooooooong time ago).

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The ancient greeks were mis-interpreted, they said the Earth had been around for a long time. When translated the 'a' was droppped :)

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The ancient greeks were mis-interpreted, they said the Earth had been around for a long time. When translated the 'a' was droppped :)

LOL I?m sure you could make a joke with that in the jokes section ;)

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The expected result will be magnetic North ending up in eastern Siberia - for a while. It had been moving at 9 mi/year, but sped up in 1989.

If you were to map magnetic reversals for the last 170 million years onto a yardstick, black being todays alignment, it would look like a way to busy bar code.

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I don't really know if something extraordinary will happen in 2012 but soon or later this magnetic shift thing will affect all of us. An ice age will kill most of us, specially the most vulnerable one.

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I don't really know if something extraordinary will happen in 2012 but soon or later this magnetic shift thing will affect all of us. An ice age will kill most of us, specially the most vulnerable one.

Pole reversal != Ice age.

Our technology would take a HUGE hit here. I hope we're fast enough to adapt to the change.

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so we won't know our ass from a hole in the ground? :laugh:

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i think that the right thing to do is to set up an international geomagnetic agency or something, with regular updates on the position of the magnetic north and share it with everyone who uses magnets to navigate

we cant just use magnetic poles straight anymore, but they can still be useful if we correlate the shift of the poles with true geographical data

i think that compasses will soon come with the 'north' and 'south' printed on a clicky ring on the body instead of the magnetic needle itself, you would use the compass by holding it in such a direction that the needle lines up with 2 spots on the ring, and where the compass says its north, it will be true north...

you will have to consult something regularly to know where to correctly set the ring on your compass... thats how i can see us moving forwards

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Just a thought I have, does East and West swap / reverse also or will they still be same?

I believe it's a flip rather than a rotation, so they would stay the same.

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I guess I'm still in the mid west...... nice for me!

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Does that correspond with december 21st, 2012? I know it?s one of the possibilities mentioned along with the apocalypse. That would make more sense if the Maya discovered the exact or approximative date of the reversal of magnetic poles rather than the date of the apocalypse... actually there were some very advanced physicists in that time. Even the Greek have always been ahead of us in that time (for instance, they knew the Earth was round a looooooooong time ago).

contrary to popular believe the people in the middle ages knew very well the earth was round, there has always been a small and very vocal group advocating the flat earth theory though.

And predicting the reversal of the poles is impossible, there are way to many variables in that equation.

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I don't really know if something extraordinary will happen in 2012 but soon or later this magnetic shift thing will affect all of us. An ice age will kill most of us, specially the most vulnerable one.

You mean the neowin admins... :cry:

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And, no doubt, the eviros will blame it on human induced global....errr ahhh.- (new name)...."climate change" :p

It's only apocalyptic anthropogenic global warming when they're trying to get more funding or gain public support by fear mongering; once they're asked for evidence it changes to "climate change"...

This is the science section, not domestic politics.

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