The Earth’s Magnetic Poles Are Overdue for a Switch

Posted by $ nickursis 6 years, 2 months ago to Science
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Maybe this is a bigger issue than "climate change"?
SOURCE URL: https://futurism.com/earths-magnetic-poles-overdue-switch/


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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 2 months ago
    Interesting, so the one 40K years ago was a failure...
    I think that our pole flips were driven by something we no longer associate with; a planet, another star or system we may have passed by on our journey around the galaxy, that either no longer exists or has moved on.
    Perhaps something within the planet has changed or matured...haven't heard of any other reports of planets in our solar system that have switched their poles.
    But the poles haven't really stopped wondering for as long as we have tracked them. I don't think we really have a handle on what happened 40K years ago, let alone, 780K years ago.

    I'm voting for a mere wondering and each going back to their respective corners until the bell rings once again.
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    • Posted by lrshultis 6 years, 2 months ago
      Wasn't there a computer study of the twisting, turning, entangled magnetic field of the Sun that showed that the poles of the magnetic field will spontaneously shift after a time, just as it does about every 11 years. Not sure that the same process could happen, though much more slowly, with the Earth's core's magnetic fields.
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      • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 2 months ago
        Yes, but it hasn't happened in 780K years where before that, science claims it was a 250K years or so cycle...somethin changed?

        It was interesting that the article mentions that the pole wanderings 40K years ago failed to reverse...somethin changed...
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        • Posted by lrshultis 6 years, 2 months ago
          The study was of the magnetic field of the Sun Not the Earth's. My wonder was as to whether the magnetic field of the Earth could do the same thing, though in a much longer time span.
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          • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 2 months ago
            I know that, I said, (Yes to your question)...it very well may take the same course, but, it hasn't in a very long time which should egg us on to look at what might of changed.
            However, and again, we see how the pole reversal happens on the sun but we don't know why it happens...we know even less about earth.
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            • Posted by $ 6 years, 2 months ago
              Well, it seems to coincide with the sunspot cycle, and a star is a giant fusion plant with it's heaviest elements in the center, and rorating rather fast. All that plasma seems to generate huge lines of force, so I am sure someone should have modeled cause and effect as to how the magnetic moment is being transferred. I would think an astronomy major might go for that thesis, at some point.
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    • Posted by $ 6 years, 2 months ago
      Well, I was rather interested in the "iron and nickle leaving the core" statement, since would that not change the magnetic moment and make a flip possible?
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      • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 2 months ago
        I still think that process, if it is causation, would depend on some other process or effect. We can see "what" happens each time the sun's poles flip but we still have no idea "why" it happens.
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        • Posted by $ 6 years, 2 months ago
          How often is that occurring?
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          • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 2 months ago
            Every 11 years I think, going from solar minimum to solar max.
            Of course, the next solar max won't be much of a maximum during a Grand Solar Minimum. I worry about our weakened shields...even small sun spot flairs will disrupt our electrical systems.

            Just think what that might do to those robotic cars they will shove us into...sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen...
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            • Posted by $ 6 years, 2 months ago
              I will not drive something connected to the "cloud", ever. I am not convinced they are safe and I work for one of the big players, and they have no good answers, just a lot of "it's great". It will be a huge burst of build out for the infrastructure, but one little twitch and boom.
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              • Posted by mccannon01 6 years, 2 months ago
                I'm with you on this one, nickursis. I've been coding chemical and industrial systems since 1972. Retired now, but still manage to get into a "project" from time to time. Scored a lot of success in my time, but a couple of decades ago I helped bring up a chemical making system that was "huge". It was in a very large building spanning multiple floors and involved a host of systems communicating with each other to make product "more profitable than the Fed can print money". We really knew what we were doing. We were cutting edge. We were engineering and programming gods! Then one day lightning hit the building. Multiple times! A mess. Ever since that time I ask myself for every system I was was associated with or had to use: "What happens when lightning hits the building?" I don't like the idea of a "cloud" car, either. What's the recovery plan when you're cruising on the freeway at 70+mph happily immersed in reading the Gulch and "lightning hits the building"?
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                • Posted by $ 6 years, 2 months ago
                  Exactly, and they keep saying how each car will need to send gigabits per second to the cloud and recieve it, but I can't get a cell signal for a good bit of my drive home, and when you ask about that idea you get "don't worry it will work with 5G". Yea, I will wait and see how many years it will take for 5g to become standard.....
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  • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 2 months ago
    Hi Nickursis,
    The pole shift will not cause a shift or tilt of the continent The biggest concern is as the poles reverse the Magnetisphere weakens as it is doing now that is our shield from solar and cosmic debris. Cosmic rays help form clouds this shades the planet and does not allow as much of the radiance to warm thins up.

    There is a hypothesis that with a weakened Magnetisphere , the Earth's interaction with solar flares ,CME's and the combining of hydrogen and oxygen sucked into the ionosphere may create water and explain some of the planets water
    .https://youtu.be/vJKTLuvGAU4


    Our technology definitely would be in danger, however. Even now, solar storms can damage satellites, cause power outages and interrupt radio communications. These kinds of negative influences clearly will increase if the magnetic field and thus its shielding function became significantly weaker, e.g. during a reversal, and it will be important to find mitigation strategies,

    One additional worry is that a weakening and eventual reversal in the field would disorient all those species that rely on geomagnetism for navigation, including bees, salmon, turtles, whales, bacteria and pigeons. There is no scientific consensus on how those creatures would cope.

    Continental shifts?

    Many of the disaster scenarios associated with geomagnetic pole reversals in popular imagination are pure fantasy, the scientists said. There definitely won't be any break-up or shift of the continents.
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    • Posted by $ 6 years, 2 months ago
      I agree, with the provisio that there may be something we do not know of in regards to this "migration" of iron and nickle" from the core, if it can exude from the corre, and become influenced by the effects of rotation, maybe it will push upwards into a level that results in more crustal heating, making it more fluid and allow for larger, longer eruptions? That might ruin our day....
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  • Posted by $ blarman 6 years, 2 months ago
    If the poles do switch, those in advanced nations will take it the hardest being unable to cope without technology. Even most modern farm tractors use GPS. You can bet that the US will be worse off than many African nations as rioting, looting, and gangs ravage major cities when the power fails.
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    • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 2 months ago
      I am not sure a pole shift would effect our power grids but I am sure, that it would mess up our navigation for a bit.
      I read something that stated: pilots/ships that fly or sail in extreme northern or southern regions get daily updates for compass settings. GPS setting would also have to be reprogrammed of updated frequently.
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      • Posted by $ blarman 6 years, 2 months ago
        My understanding is that it depends on how fast the pole shifts. There are some theories which state that it was a catastrophic and sudden pole shift which cause the demise of the dinosaurs, and scientists have found information to correlate pole shifts with catastrophic seasonal shifts and weather pattern changes. None of this can be verified since the last pole change was likely before humans were present on the planet. On the other hand, this article is suggesting that a slowly-migrating pole would deplete the ionosphere, making radio communications more difficult and making us more susceptible to cosmic radiation - especially a CME.

        I guess until it actually happens, we won't know much for sure.
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      • Posted by $ 6 years, 2 months ago
        Anything magnetic would seem to be effected, even if we cash in on the new market for stick on "N" and "S" to fix all the various equipment that would be reversed, eh?
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        • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 2 months ago
          I put a weather vain on my house when I built it...has the n-s-e-w directional and a beautiful large sail boat that turns into the wind, (all copper)...I have to go up their and change the directionals...gone from 15° to 24° in just 21 years.
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  • Posted by wiggys 6 years, 2 months ago
    IS there proof of any sort that the magnetic poles actually rotate? I have been hearing about this action taking place for years. the recent writing says it happens every 200,000 to 300,000 years so why is it now almost 800,000 years and still waiting. when of IF it happens in my life time I will know what it is like, until them life goes on as usual which is why the global warmers are trying to use the action as some sort of support. just the usual these days.
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  • Posted by jimjamesjames 6 years, 2 months ago
    I live 150 miles from the Yellowstone Caldera. It's supposed to blow any day. I'll wait...........
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    • Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 2 months ago
      Apparently it blows every 65,000 years or so, give or take a couple thousand. Not much in terms of earth time but a pretty big variable in terms of humankind--time.I don't mind too much as I plan to be a few electrical charges floating around in the atmosphere by then.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 6 years, 2 months ago
    Magnetic pole flips do happen, and when they do, yes, you would have global climate change. The most reasonable cause for them is a celestial alignment with the Milky Way that formed the theme for the ancient Mayan calendar and the concern on 12/21/2012.

    So, yes, global climate change could happen. Is it? Not yet, anyway.
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    • Posted by $ 6 years, 2 months ago
      Well, I would say there are enough facts to point to a change in global climate, over the last 100 years or so (remember climate is measured in 30 year increments) so that is 3 points to use. Does it correlate to panic? Just that society as a whole needs to think how it will deal with changes to overall climate, movements of growing areas (wine makers have already moved north fro Kalifornia into Oregon and Washington because of warmer weather and drier conditions in that wasteland of humanity), and changes to crops (corn needs more water that others). Megafauna extinctions have happened before because of climate changes which is why the warming of the arctic is not so unusual, since it obviously was much warmer at one time, so why would it HAVE to stay cold always. Maybe it is part of the change in magnetic pole locations, their strength, or their traveling nature. Maybe the Sun? Definitely not the "blame it all on man" theory.
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