Pangea 4 ever!
Posted on 11/26/2011 8:27:27 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Assumed to be caused by random fluctuations in the circulation of the molten iron core, the flips may actually be tied to what's going on at Earth's surface. At times in the geologic past when landmasses have bunched together on one side of the equator, the Earth's magnetic field has begun flipping soon thereafter... "What we see clearly is that the surface positions of the continents are linked with the frequency of the reversals," says group member François Pétrélis, a geophysicist at the French research agency CNRS in Paris...
Computer simulations have shown how molten iron in the spinning core can generate magnetic fields that spontaneously flip direction every so often, so that a compass that once pointed north would suddenly begin pointing south. The last reversal happened around 780,000 years ago. Before that there were times when no flips happened for tens of millions of years, followed by periods with lots of flips... they found that if the flow is interrupted so that it no longer moves symmetrically with respect to the equator, the planet's magnetic field soon reverses... When the distribution of landmasses was lopsided, the team found, magnetic field flips followed soon after. And when continents were more evenly arranged -- such as between about 80 million and 120 million years ago, and again between 260 million and 310 million years ago -- there were long stretches without geomagnetic field reversals.
But a third reversal-free period between around 460 million and 490 million years ago doesn't fit the proposed pattern, because the continents were bunched in the southern hemisphere then, says Trond Torsvik, a geophysicist at the University of Oslo. "I am not terribly convinced with their analysis," he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Reunite Gondwonaland! Stop Continental Drift!
(funniest bumper stickers I ever saw...)
Yeah, huh? “Stosh, not to be jumping too hard! Vill cause whole planet to tip over!’’.
Pangea 4 ever!
Do the continents really drift?The distances between terrestrial radio telescopes can be measured with incredible accuracy by pointing the telescopes at the same celestial targets and operating them as interferometers. The distances between telescopes a continent apart can then be pegged to within 5 centimeters. For example, the distance between radio telescopes at Fort Davis, TX, and Onsala, Sweden, is 7,940,732.17 ± 0.10 meters. If North America and Europe are drifting apart several centimeters per year, this change should have been noticed since 1979, when adequate geodetic precision became available. Actually, no drift has been noted.
by William R. Corliss
Science Frontiers #26: Mar-Apr 1983
(Thomsen, D.E.; "Mark III Interferometer Measures Earth, Sky, and Gravity's Lens," Science News, 123:20, 1983.)
Comment. Of course, continental drift could be episodic, with the continents now static.
Reference. Objections to continental drift are legion. Refer to ETL6 and ETL7 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds.
Ancient Earth Had Magnetic FieldJohn Tarduno decided to see if he could use the University's Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (nicknamed "SQUID"), a device normally used in computing chip design, which is extremely sensitive to the tiniest magnetic fields. Tarduno's team took samples from a 1955 lava flow in Hawaii and tried to determine if the paleointensity reading would match the actual Earth's magnetic field strength in 1955. It did. With the method tested, it was time for Tarduno to see what it revealed about the magnetic field back in the days of the dinos. His team took dozens of samples from lava flows in India that were nearly 100 million years old-an unusual time in Earth's history when the field was not reversing-and found that the intensity of the field was three times stronger than the old method suggested.
3x Stronger Than Once Thought
by Jonathan Sherwood
Did iron cyclones give Earth a wonky core?
Thank you.
Over two thirds of the continents are in the Nortern hemisphere.
My pleasure. I think it’s bedtime, I see I neglected to finish one of my sentences. ;’)
;’)
The north pole used to move about five miles per year. Now it is moving toward Siberia at 35 to 40 miles per year. The strength of the Earth’s magnetic field is bottom out in 2015.
A pole flip just might be in progress.
bttt
Circle flies?
The Northern hemisphere is about 60.7% water and 39.3% land.
The Southern hemisphere is about 80.9% water and 19.1% land.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Percentage_of_land_mass_in_northern_hemisphere#ixzz1euM8zvmU
Racist - I keep the "ski" ending hidden to catch folks like you. Besides everyone knows if the "poles" flip, people will lean forwards or backwards, not to the sides.....(Ellis Island change our name from Blazejewski to something much hotter).
Yes, perhaps the poles shifting isn’t noticeable except at Scouting Jamborees, but what happens when the moon reverses its rotation around to Earth?
If the oceans were heavier, they’d be at the Earth’s core. :’)
...and on the ground, a steaming pile. :’)
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