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The New York Times On Earth's Magnetic Flip-Flop
TolkiEinstein writes "The New York Times reports that, relatively speaking, compasses may soon point South. It's long been known that Earth flips magnetically every half-million years or so, and, with the north pole's magnetic field at about 10-15 percent [less than] its strength of 150 years ago, many geologists feel a flip is coming up. Computer simulations also suggest that the current state of the magnetic field is indicative of an upcoming flip. Though it would take hundreds of years to complete, the impact on life may be significant but not catastrophic, including phenomena such as power-outages, satellite malfunctions and disruptions in the rhythmic functions of some animals such as loggerhead turtles. The EU plans to launch a trio of satellites in 2009 to assume polar orbits & monitor the field." (Cross your fingers for some nice solar wind.) Update: 07/13 17:02 GMT by T : Note: the summary here originally misstated the Times' article; the field 's strength has decreased 10-15 percent, rather than to 10-15 percent.
And, since the magnetic field will be weakened, there'll be a supposed worldwide 24/7 aurora. Now that's kewl.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
Beings aspergers AND pulling chicks... I enjoy the challenge!
Could they have possibly picked a more random animal for that example?
And won't someone please think of the turtles?!?!?!?!?!
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"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
I had my homework al done, but the magnetic poles flipped and wiped my harddrive...
Modded funny, but you just watch - people WILL blame the government when it happens. No matter how much you try to explain, no matter how clear the explainations are, a significant number of people are going to blame the government.
It's also the case that whoever is in office is going to get burned by the problems - blamed for "lack of preparedness" or "failure to respond to the situation" etc, etc. And there will be calls for huge governmennt expenditures to "fix" or "solve" the problem.
What if we all donated spare refrigerator magnets, magnets from old hard disks, etc. and carefully arranged them at the north and south poles. These giant piles would hold the poles in place. Perhaps a lucky chain letter spam from Bill Gates would help get people to donate magnets to the cause.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
It has to be pointed out that there is a significant difference between "The field's strength has waned 10 to 15 percent." which is what the article says; and "the north pole's magnetic field at about 10-15 percent it's strength of 150 years ago" which is what Timothy says. The former means that the field strength is still 85 to 90 percent of the original value (still nearly intact), while the latter means that it is only 10-15 percent of that value (nearly gone). This distiction not insignificant. That being said, it's still neat to follow (even though I don't think that I'll be around at the end).
The seasons are such because of the earth's tilt, rather than any magnetic effects.
If you have kde run kworldwatch in speeded up mode to watch the sunlight distribution.
It will be hilarous if the poles flip about the time the Mayan calendar ends, hopefully it will go as gracefully as scientists have predicted.
Unlikely, since a full flip takes a few hundred years; it is not a sudden, catastrophic effect.
As The southern hemisphere has its winter during our summer, I am wondering if the seasons will flip flop as well ???
Unlikely, since the seasons are defined by the orientation of the Earth's rotation axis to its Solar orbital axis; they have nothing whatsoever to do with the magnetic axis.
I also wonder if the polar shift will effect magma flows ...
Unlikely; the fields are far to weak, and get even weaker during a field reversal.
I wonder if the magnetic field has any effect on plate tectonics too .
Unlikely, for the reasons I give above.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
From the poster's text:
"and, with the north pole's magnetic field at about 10-15 percent it's strength of 150 years ago"
From the article itself:
"The field's strength has waned 10 to 15 percent, and the deterioration has accelerated of late"
Those two quotes are not the same. The poster's lack of attention to detail has turned the articles 10 to 15 percent reduction (a relative value) into a 10 to 15 percent strength (an absolute value). The meaning is totally different, and the poster should apologize for spreading mis-information.
Then real fun with the flipping of the magnetic field is not that it moves uniformly from one pole to another over time, but that as it breaks down, tens or hundreds of "north" and "south" poles can develop which are spread all over the planet - see this article in New Scientist. With any luck, maybe my house might end up at one of these new "North Poles" for a while, so at least I can say I've been there :-)
It's too late for me to die young
I'm a geologist and can tell you there has never been an extinction event associated with or correlated to a magnetic reversal. These are common events that have taken place quite a few times since life arose on this planet.
For whatever reason everything will turn out ok. That being said, they didn't have computers and power grids back then.
You wouldn't go to sleep one night with your compass pointing north and suddenly have it point south when you woke up.
No. In fact, frequently the opposite is what actually happens.
~Philly
Has anyone thought of his relocation???
While the article does little to posit the consequences of these competing theories, it does provide a good deal of insight as to why and when the changes occur. It does conclude, however, that "many investigators believe that the trend [magnetic pole weakening] will not continue and the field will regain its strength, as it has many times in the past."
As a Physicist I can tell you that that is exactly like science works and that it has worked well for centuries.
There is a method that, when put bluntly, is like this: "If you put forward an extraordinary, off-mainstream hypothesis you've better a) come from a respectable university/research group, b) show some extraordinary, easily reproducible evidence for it too and c) get ready for some serious ad hominem bashing, ridicule and possibly loss of funds". It all comes with the territory.
I'm glad popular science mags like SA adhere to this standard.
The owls are not what they seem
There was a big "DO NOT PUSH" sign right next to the degauss button!
I'm not a loggerhead turtle
The magnetic field is a 'random process'. There is no real good statistical predictor of when the next reversal will happen.