[pabianice]

The lava catches Earth's magnetic field in the act of reversing itself. Magnetic north heads south, and -- over about 1,000 years -- the field does a complete flip-flop.

What bullshit. Magnetic compasses have been in use for 600 years and in that time the Earth's magnetic north pole has barely moved. By this "reasoning," magnetic north would have by now moved to Korea.

[Salamander]

[Dog Gone]

What bullshit. Magnetic compasses have been in use for 600 years and in that time the Earth's magnetic north pole has barely moved. By this "reasoning," magnetic north would have by now moved to Korea.

The article didn't say it was happening today. It was referring to what happens during a reversal.

[Steve0113]

By this "reasoning," magnetic north would have by now moved to Korea.

Read the article again. It doesn't say the field reverses every thousand years. It says the reversal takes a thousand years to complete.

[MNJohnnie]

What bullshit. Magnetic compasses have been in use for 600 years and in that time the Earth's magnetic north pole has barely moved. By this "reasoning," magnetic north would have by now moved to Korea.

Guess you missed this. "The typical lifetime of a magnetic field like Earth's," says Glatzmaier, "is several tens of thousands of years. The fact that it's existed for billions of years means something must be regenerating it all the time."

[ASA Vet]

RIF

[gondramB]

>>What bullshit. Magnetic compasses have been in use for 600 years and in that time the Earth's magnetic north pole has barely moved. By this "reasoning," magnetic north would have by now moved to Korea.<<

This is established science that the poles reverse. The frequency is in debate.

[RhoTheta]

What bullshit. Magnetic compasses have been in use for 600 years and in that time the Earth's magnetic north pole has barely moved. By this "reasoning," magnetic north would have by now moved to Korea.

My reaction too. We do have to correct Magnetic North to True North (and visa versa), and the correction factor changes enough so that charts don't print the correction factor on them lest they become obsolete. So the field is changing, but massive projections as to when the field will reverse, when the change seems slow, irregular, and un-uniform seems unwise.

[Danae]

Nope. This is a real theory. that's why there is a TRUE north and MAGNTEIC north. It's called the Angle of Declination, and it most DEFINATELY changes.


From : http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/29dec_magneticfield.htm

"Scientists have long known that the magnetic pole moves. James Ross located the pole for the first time in 1831 after an exhausting arctic journey during which his ship got stuck in the ice for four years. No one returned until the next century. In 1904, Roald Amundsen found the pole again and discovered that it had moved--at least 50 km since the days of Ross.


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The pole kept going during the 20th century, north at an average speed of 10 km per year, lately accelerating "to 40 km per year," says Newitt. At this rate it will exit North America and reach Siberia in a few decades.

Keeping track of the north magnetic pole is Newitt's job. "We usually go out and check its location once every few years," he says. "We'll have to make more trips now that it is moving so quickly."

Earth's magnetic field is changing in other ways, too: Compass needles in Africa, for instance, are drifting about 1 degree per decade. And globally the magnetic field has weakened 10% since the 19th century. When this was mentioned by researchers at a recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union, many newspapers carried the story. A typical headline: "Is Earth's magnetic field collapsing?"

Probably not. As remarkable as these changes sound, "they're mild compared to what Earth's magnetic field has done in the past," says University of California professor Gary Glatzmaier.

Sometimes the field completely flips. The north and the south poles swap places. Such reversals, recorded in the magnetism of ancient rocks, are unpredictable. They come at irregular intervals averaging about 300,000 years; the last one was 780,000 years ago. Are we overdue for another? No one knows. "

The magnetic pole is shifting all the time. For my location, in Oregon it is : Declination = 17° 7' E changing by 0° 9' W/year. From the site : http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/geomag/jsp/struts/calcDeclination
The Field DOES flip. It will happen again. We just have no idea of when it will happen again.

[RightWhale]

The compass needle was in use during the Trojan war.

[expatpat]

BS yourself. The long-term changes in magnetic north have been well-documented for decades. Magnetic north is changing as we speak -- just compare some old aeronautical charts with the new versions.

[caveat emptor]

Magnetic compasses have been in use for 600 years and in that time the Earth's magnetic north pole has barely moved.

Magnaetic declination is a phrase familiar to anyone depending on a magnetic compass for route finding or surveying before the advent of GPS. It's the difference between magnetic north and true north. It varies with location and time.

The declination as well as rate of change at point of use needs to be known to get an accurate direction of geographic north. The rate of change may also change. A straightforward explanation with examples can be found here if you're interested.

For more exotic possibilities of "North", see here, here, and here .

[lawdude]

"What bullshit. Magnetic compasses have been in use for 600 years and in that time the Earth's magnetic north pole has barely moved. By this "reasoning," magnetic north would have by now moved to Korea."

Do you have a clue as to where the magnetic North Pole is today? Barely moved? Google the subject.

[FreeReign]

What bullshit. Magnetic compasses have been in use for 600 years and in that time the Earth's magnetic north pole has barely moved. By this "reasoning," magnetic north would have by now moved to Korea.

600 years in geologic time is short.

The geoligical record is clear. Magnetic reversals have occurred numerous times over geological time.

[King Prout]

actually, the magnetic poles have shifted significantly within the last 40 years, which is why maps and charts older than a few years are unreliable for navigation. Hell, on some land nav courses I went through in ROTC, they issued multiple degree corrections to the stated magnetic north on maps less than 15 years old.
moreover, you misread: the article stated very plainly that polar flux is highly irregular - sometimes rapid, sometimes quite static for very long periods.