Posted on 07/12/2004 4:05:31 PM PDT by mkj6080
The collapse of the earth's magnetic field, which both guards the planet and guides many of its creatures, appears to have started in earnest about 150 years ago, the NY TIMES is planning to report on Page Ones Tuesday.
Science reporter Bill Broad has filed a report, according to newsroom sources, which explores how: 'The field's strength has waned 10 percent to 15 percent so far and this deterioration has accelerated of late, increasing debate over whether it portends a reversal of the lines of magnetic force that normally envelop the earth."
Broad explains: "During a reversal, the main field weakens, almost vanishes, and then reappears with opposite polarity. Afterward, compass needles that normally point north would point south, and during the thousands of years of transition much in the heavens and Earth would go askew."
Broad claims: "A reversal could knock out power grids, hurt astronauts and satellites, widen atmospheric ozone holes, send polar auroras flashing to the equator and confuse birds, fish and migratory animals that rely on the steadiness of the magnetic field as a navigation aid."
Developing...
We're doomed! Doomed, I tell you! And it's all because of George W. Bush.
/sarcasm
I just pray that this doesn't mean that all of us on the right will suddenly be shifted to the....dare I say....left!
Never, NEVER!
Doc
"After all he invented the earths magnetic field, didn't he?????"
No, he merely invented the wheel, stone tools, bows and arrows, and also was the first to use fire.
"Will my toilet flush counter clockwise?"
Much worse: it will flush backwards. Be warned.
It will probably be next to a picture of Bush.
Is this different from global warming (or cooling, I forget which is more important at the moment). It will surely screw up all our magnetic compasses, and lead to outbreaks of acne in middle-aged men.
Women and children, however, will have steadily clearer complexions.
And only those animals that had been rendered infertile would need to adopt.
OK, but I think I'll wait till I see what Bill Nye, the Science Guy says. 
I recall a FReeper mentioning the magnetic field on that thread... sw
Sorry. Our weight is caused by the earth's gravitation--i.e., by our mass and the earth's mass--not by the earth's magnetic field.
"Oliver South--he was just POURED into that uniform."--Homer Simpson.
Geographic North would be the same. Magnetic North would change to South but the process goes back and forth many times over a long period in terms of human lives. The field also reverses in some parts before other parts of the world. Magnetic navigation would be very tricky for a long time. But that's where GPS satellites can take up the slack.
This would not change. The coriolus effect is not caused by the magnetic field, but by the rotation of the earth.
My guess would be that during the period of reversal that the field is minimized, the solar wind (protons and electrons) would impinge more directly on the atmosphere at and around the Equator and raise the temperature of the upper atmosphere. Since this seems to coincide with the highest level of sunspot activity ever observed, the effect could be very large. A secondary effect is expansion of the upper atmosphere, perhaps to the point where low earth orbit satellites might be affected by atmospheric drag and fall out of orbit faster.
Another effect is the loss of magnetic shielding from cosmic rays, which could mean more cancers.
Well I need to read in in depth article on this but much of it smacks of Junk Science.
This was the plot of movie a couple of years ago, "The Core". They had to drill down to the center of the Earth and restart the field.
Calling James Mason we need you. "Journey to the Center of the Earth".
South of the equator it goes clockwise. Go and look. If you go to the bathroom directly on the equator, it just sits there and looks back at you. That's called a "Third World Toilet".
LOL
I worked at JPL writing software, and performing spacecraft controller duties for the AMPTE project in the early 80's. It was "torqued" to point toward the sun by powering up magnetic coils to work against the earths magnetic field.
I never worked on another spacecraft, and I've never heard technical details on others, so I don't know how common this positioning system is.
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