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Dispelling Myths About Geomagnetic Reversal
UniverseToday has an interesting look at geomagnetic reversal, the process in which the Earth's magnetic poles trade places. The article cites known trends and recent studies to debunk doomsday myths and unsubstantiated claims about the process. One such study is attempting to model the earth's core with a 26-ton ball of molten metal. Another recently found evidence that the Earth has a second, weaker magnetic field. "We do know that this magnetic pole flip-flop has occurred many times in the last few million years; the last occurred 780,000 years ago according to ferromagnetic sediment. A few scaremongering articles have said geomagnetic reversal occurs with 'clockwork regularity' — this is simply not true."
...and the bankers flipped.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
"we'll be exposed to the vast quantities of radiation blasting from the Sun; with a reversing magnetic field comes a weakening in the Earth's ability to deflect cosmic rays."
Finally, a use for our tinfoil hats!
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Doesn't rotating the device 180 degrees have the same effect? If it takes you 0.5 sec to turn a North-facing iPod into a South-facing iPod and it doesn't break it, just how fast a geomagnetic reversal do you have in mind?
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Without GPS, our airliners will also plough into the ground
Goddamit man, we can't land without GPS!
Good thing Lindberg had GPS, otherwise he would've gotten lost like Earhart did when her GPS failed.
GPS approaches are actually relatively new and are just now in the past few years showing up on modern Jeppsen charts.
That being said, modern GPS based navigation is so sweet. Nothing is sweeter than jumping into a plane with a G1000 GPS based system, complete with XM weather and traffic warning systems and seeing it all on configurable glass panels. But if it fails there is always backup "classic" gauges one can use. And even if that fails there is ye olde grey matter.
Says the guy posting to Slashdot.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Just because I don't have a fancy "doctorate" or even "college education", doesn't mean you can just dismiss my theories! Einstein didn't go to college after all, look where he ended up!
I'm telling you, my theory is solid. I saw this show on the History Channel the other day that was talking about what kind of propulsion UFO's might use, and it came to me: What would happen if the Earth's magnetic field happened every 780,000 years and 300 days, exactly? That would mean it would happen again in November! Our only hope is to align every source of magnetic material in the world along north-south magnetic lines! I've already done this with my stove, fridge, and just to be safe my wireless network. I encourage all of you to do the same!
I am not crazy people! My scientific theories are backed up by some of the finest dramatization programs the Discovery Channel has to offer!
Well, if we went through a phase of hunting people instead of venison for food, the plan just might work. Then not only do you get a reduced population due to food harvesting, but you also get a reduced population due to wide spread disease. Whoo Hoo! All our problems are solved!
The earth's magnetic field is about half a gauss at the surface. It's weaker than the field generated by a refrigerator magnet. I think it's safe to say that the flip is not gonna destroy your electronics.
That's utter nonsense. The magnetic field is continuously monitored from orbit by all sorts of satellites. One of many such satellites is Ørsted. There are papers all through the 1990s and 2000s that analyze the data from this and the others. People don't fund surface expeditions to study large-scale magnetic field variations because they've been largely superceded by satellite measurements. The only people interested in surface measurements are usually exploration geologists (e.g., looking for signs of sub-surface mineral deposits).
It really isn't. The problem itself is not the reversal itself, but the period inbetween, when the magnetic field will be very small or inexistent. The earth's magnetic field has the effect of diverting charged energetic particles emitted by the sun towards the poles. It's those particles entering the atmosphere that cause the northern lights. Without a magnetic field, they would penetrate more into the atmosphere, possibly causing harm to living beings.
However, this reversal will happen several hundred years from now. By that time, I'm sure that, if I'm alive, it will be because we will have some pretty advanced medicine, capable of handling the increased radiation effects.
I don't think a field change at .0000000000004 Hz is going to induce much current anywhere.
.03% of the world population. Just a doubling of the current rate of death due to cancer would kill 7.9 million people - almost four times that of AIDS. And with sufficient radiation exposure, the cancer rate could well escalate way beyond 2X.
TFA does little to debunk what may be the biggest danger, and that is the disruption of the Van Allen radiation belt, and the protection that it provides to the Earth from cosmic rays. While I'm sure that the radiation belt would re-establish itself to match the "flipped" magnetic poles, it may not do so during the transition period. And this pole flipping may be quick in geological terms, but it may take a number of years, and during that time, part or all of the Earth may be bombarded with cosmic rays. Or, the distorted field may actually concentrate cosmic rays upon parts of the Earth many times what you'd find in space outside the belt. These cosmic rays would cause massive increases in cancer and genetic mutations in all species of plants and animals, and even a stack of tinfoil hats won't help. Much.
Increases in cancers would not be detected in the geological records, and periods of high radiation may explain things like the Cambrian Explosion, where many new species spontaneously appeared. If the field swaps by rotating from pole to pole, the radiation belt will probably just follow along, but if the poles swap by diminishing to zero and then building at the opposite pole, there will be a very dramatic change (and possible collapse) of the radiation belt that could very well affect life on the planet very dramatically (from our perspective). The scourge of AIDS killed 2.1 million people in 2007. That's
Of course, ancient calendars not withstanding, there's no reason to believe any of this is likely to happen during our lifetimes.