Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Thousand-Year-Old Furnace in Cambodia Shows How Earth's Magnetic Field Shifts
Inside Science ^ | Tuesday, March 9, 2021 | Rebecca Boyle, Contributor

Posted on 03/16/2021 8:56:34 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

By studying what was once an iron smelting site in Cambodia, archaeologists and earth scientists unveiled a sharp change in Earth’s geomagnetic field direction and strength that occurred about 10 centuries ago. The new data, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, marks the first archaeomagnetism records from southeastern Asia. The researchers believe it will fill gaps in scientists’ understanding of Earth’s past magnetism, illuminating how the planet’s protective sheath may change in the future...

Tauxe worked with Mitch Hendrickson, an archaeologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who was excavating an iron-smelting site built by the Khmer Empire, which ruled Cambodia from the 9th century through the 14th centuries before collapsing. His team uncovered three iron furnaces at Tonle Bak, located in south-central Cambodia, which provided weapons and building material to fuel the Khmer Empire’s expansion beyond its capital of Angkor. Hendrickson’s team studied furnace fragments, slag waste left over from iron smelting, and tuyères, or air-delivery pipes.

When Tauxe and her team examined the iron waste, they found the Earth’s magnetic field moved suddenly westward and then eastward between 1200 and 1300. They also noticed a sharp decline in the field’s strength between 1100 and 1300.

(Excerpt) Read more at insidescience.org ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; cambodia; catastrophism; godsgravesglyphs; gps; khmerempire; magneticfield; magnetism; poleshift; science; tonlebak
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last
Rebecca Boyle is an award-winning freelance journalist covering astronomy, zoonoses and everything in between. She is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and her work regularly appears in Popular Science, New Scientist, Aeon, Wired, and other publications for adults and kids. Follow her on twitter: @rboyle31.

Rebecca Boyle

1 posted on 03/16/2021 8:56:34 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 75thOVI; Abathar; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AnalogReigns; AndrewC; aragorn; ...



2 posted on 03/16/2021 8:57:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

3 posted on 03/16/2021 8:59:24 AM PDT by Red Badger ("We've always been at war with Climate Change, Winston."..............................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

No! It is fossil fuel burning causing shift in magnetic fields. Global warming has the same cause. Coming ice age will also be caused by too many cars & airplanes. /S


4 posted on 03/16/2021 9:01:02 AM PDT by entropy12 (Elections have consequences. Stolen elections have severe consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Has the “ climate change “ crowd come up with a way to control the magnetic field ?

Is young Greta Thunberg on the case ?


5 posted on 03/16/2021 9:01:26 AM PDT by BrexitBen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

I almost lost an eye from flying pieces of toast! ;^)


6 posted on 03/16/2021 9:01:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

7 posted on 03/16/2021 9:03:57 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Fred Nerks

Fred, they found your old ovens from a former life.

Do not give them your old recipes.


8 posted on 03/16/2021 9:06:05 AM PDT by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

https://ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/GeomagneticPoles.shtml


9 posted on 03/16/2021 9:07:16 AM PDT by sasquatch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

You mean the poles changed things out of Krakow?


10 posted on 03/16/2021 9:07:44 AM PDT by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

You weren’t wearing dark sunglasses?..............


11 posted on 03/16/2021 9:08:29 AM PDT by Red Badger ("We've always been at war with Climate Change, Winston."..............................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

This technique is usually used on igneous rocks like basaltic lava flows that ‘lock in’ local magnetic fields when the magnetite goes through the curie temperature. An oriented core sample is taken with a diamond bit, then cut into pieces that are mounted in a special freely spinning gimbal mounted in three axis magnetometer. The sample is spun and an average magnetization vector is determined and worked back to the original sample orientation in space. Here they are doing it with furnace slag.


12 posted on 03/16/2021 9:14:20 AM PDT by SpaceBar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Hmmm ... 1100 to 1300 ... roughly coinciding with the latter half of Little Optimum (considered circa 950 to 1250).

So since the Glowball Warming that caused the warming preceded the drop in field strength while a gradual return to cooler weather was after or contemporary with it this is probably correlation and not causation (I’m assuming a weakening magnetic field would allow more energy to strike the whole earth, not less, whereas a strong field strength would shift some energy to the poles but block more of the solar wind otherwise).


13 posted on 03/16/2021 9:14:49 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BrexitBen

If the field gets too weak we could always attach magnets to Founding Fathers spinning in their graves.


14 posted on 03/16/2021 9:16:22 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

The second time I just sat in the back. I didn’t own a raincoat at that time. Or now.


15 posted on 03/16/2021 9:17:50 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Yes, the earth’s magnetic field changes with time. Anyone who has kept track of magnetic declination changes over the last few decades knows this. These data from about 1000 years ago are fascinating, though.


16 posted on 03/16/2021 9:19:24 AM PDT by backwoods-engineer (But what do I know? I'm just a backwoods engineer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SpaceBar

Yup. That’s the technique that provided the evidence for plate tectonics, still better known (and more accurately known) as continental drift. But it’s been used on pottery and such as well, the results providing consternation at times.


17 posted on 03/16/2021 9:19:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: backwoods-engineer

Yup, the compass adjustment for true north has changed just since I was a Boy Scout. The Scouts really tightened up membership after I was done with ‘em.

https://freerepublic.com/tag/poleshift/index


18 posted on 03/16/2021 9:21:21 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Magnetic shift? That gif sent my gyros tumbling.


19 posted on 03/16/2021 9:26:44 AM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

OR, that lazy jerk Fred dumped a pile of hematite next to the furnace and never shoveled it in, which happened to be full of loadstone unbeknownst to anyone at the time.


20 posted on 03/16/2021 9:28:57 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson