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.
I have one of those too.
Is Micheal Mann aware of this?
termites emit more greenhouse gasses than all the flatulent cows on the planet...we should tax them instead...
I fart too maybe they should tax me....oh wait...
Hmm. Paging Charles Hapgood...
Bookmark
Why should Al Gore fear monger this when we have the movie 2012 to do it for us.
Yeeehaw!
A new crisis to scare out kiddies with!
I was wondering what form it would take - ya gotta hand it to ‘em.
They CAN be quite creative.
Sounds like we are in dire need of a flux capacitor!
This link has a nice graphic showing the magnetic shift identified in sea floor spreading from the mid Atlantic rift. It seems there have been about 11 shifts in the past 4 million years of varying lengths.
http://istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthmag/reversal.htm
You are both very welcome.
It’s either Bush’s fault or it’s caused by exhaling carbon dioxide toward the Northeast.
“More likely penguin farts. Ever seen a cow on the north pole?”
Nope. No penguins, either. They’re at the South Pole.
...when we have the movie 2012 to do it for us.
That is what the compass rose is for on charts, you have to adjust magnetic north to true north when navigating. My wife and I took Charting and Navigating courses through the Coast Guard, they were free and excellent, we learned dead reckoning and all kinds of very cool stuff, the course was difficult but a great experience.
No no, you’ve all got it wrong! The North Pole is shifting towards Russia because of the excess weight of all the fatties in the USA, thus causing the earth to droop down! The UN will demand that everyone in America go on a strict weight-loss regimen - except for Al Gore, who just opened up a “Calorie Offsets” enterprise...
I enjoy your creative writing. You could get a job with the Democrats if you wanted it. That’s IF you wanted it.
Shiloh was one of the first Civil War battlefields I visited. I found it even more haunting than most. That was where both sides found out that this is going be long and much more bloody than anyone ever thought.
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