Posted on 12/28/2009 4:21:56 PM PST by NYer
Earth's north magnetic pole is racing toward Russia at almost 40 miles (64 kilometers) a year due to magnetic changes in the planet's core, new research says.
The core is too deep for scientists to directly detect its magnetic field. But researchers can infer the field's movements by tracking how Earth's magnetic field has been changing at the surface and in space.
Now, newly analyzed data suggest that there's a region of rapidly changing magnetism on the core's surface, possibly being created by a mysterious "plume" of magnetism arising from deeper in the core.
And it's this region that could be pulling the magnetic pole away from its long-time location in northern Canada, said Arnaud Chulliat, a geophysicist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France.
Finding North
Magnetic north, which is the place where compass needles actually point, is near but not exactly in the same place as the geographic North Pole. Right now, magnetic north is close to Canada's Ellesmere Island.
Navigators have used magnetic north for centuries to orient themselves when they're far from recognizable landmarks.
Although global positioning systems have largely replaced such traditional techniques, many people still find compasses useful for getting around underwater and underground where GPS satellites can't communicate.
The magnetic north pole had moved little from the time scientists first located it in 1831. Then in 1904, the pole began shifting northeastward at a steady pace of about 9 miles (15 kilometers) a year.
In 1989 it sped up again, and in 2007 scientists confirmed that the pole is now galloping toward Siberia at 34 to 37 miles (55 to 60 kilometers) a year.
A rapidly shifting magnetic pole means that magnetic-field maps need to be updated more often to allow compass users to make the crucial adjustment from magnetic north to true North.
Wandering Pole
Geologists think Earth has a magnetic field because the core is made up of a solid iron center surrounded by rapidly spinning liquid rock. This creates a "dynamo" that drives our magnetic field.
(Get more facts about Earth's insides.)
Scientists had long suspected that, since the molten core is constantly moving, changes in its magnetism might be affecting the surface location of magnetic north.
Although the new research seems to back up this idea, Chulliat is not ready to say whether magnetic north will eventually cross into Russia.
"It's too difficult to forecast," Chulliat said.
Also, nobody knows when another change in the core might pop up elsewhere, sending magnetic north wandering in a new direction.
Chulliat presented his work this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
What did the Mayans know that we don’t?
We need to get the flux out of here.
I have no doubt that this has been caused by the Industrial Revolution and Capitalism. Mark my words, polar bears will die because of this.
Nope: Not “George Bush’s Fault.” You can only use that line for a major earthquake.
It’s not your Fault that you don’t know geology. I guess you didn’t Miner in Geology at school.
However, you probably have a Magnetic personality so the magnetic pole shift will not hurt you.
Other Mayans.
Don’t let Gore know about this.
Yes, the earth’s magnetic poles have switch several times in the past. The problem for things not in the deep ocean is that, if the field goes to zero during the shift, then the earth looses its “shield” and radiation levels at the surface rise to possibly lethal levels.
My pole NEVER wanders.
Has something to do with this this, I think....
A flip of the magnetic poles has happend in the past...and will again....
and yes this could seriously screw up a lot of stuff...
We need a magnetic Czar pronto!
Researchers at the Magnetism Research Unit at East Anglia University have found that 700 AM radio stations in the US broadcasting Rush Limbaugh simultaneously are causing the magnetic north pole to shift toward Russia. The data used in the study has been misplaced but no doubt this is what is occurring. Pleas are being made to get stations to stop the radio wave pollution or mitigate it by switching to Alan Colmes. Peer reviewed papers will be presented to the upcoming UN Conference on polar migration.
Kind of, but not in the way you might think. In the dinosaur days at OU School of Geology and Geophysics, changes in the Earth’s magnetic field were closely related to changes in eustatic (global) sea level. The rock record would show a sequence of a terrestrial, then nearshore, then offshore environment, which was interpreted as showing a change in sea level (IIRC, because these same cycles were matched up all over the world for that specific stratigraphic section).
So, it seems to support what we understood, and what universities taught everywhere, that changes in global sea level were cause by a number of different forces, none manmade, and had gone on so throughout time.
This is harpoon in the side of anthropogenic warming.
Well, that must mean the science is settled!
All posts are just to funny...favorite one
It’s probably just trying to get away from Zero’s Healthcare plans.
Paging Commander Bond, Commander James Bond.
“Geologists think Earth has a magnetic field because the core is made up of a solid iron center surrounded by rapidly spinning liquid rock. This creates a “dynamo” that drives our magnetic field.”
Well of course, it’s millions of degrees down there as Goron has already told us.
Ploe flip ping
I mean of course a pole flip ping.
Lordy my fingers just won’t type the way my brain thinks
It’s cell phones, they are causing the magnetic poles to reverse.
And video games. Especially GTA.
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