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originally posted by: FilthyUSMonkey
a reply to: Gargoyle91
Well, now do I have to get updated USGS maps for the magnetic offset? Is 35 miles that much of a deal?
I am still one of those people who trust a map and a compass (and a backup compass - Silva!) to get around in the brush. Yeah, I will use those newfangled GPS units for most of my trips, but I always am secure in my maps and compass kits.
Good post. S&F.
originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Blue Shift
Earth does not always spin on an axis running through its poles, she Instead wobbles irregularly over time and our Moon also contributes to the wobble, so as far as I'm aware the poles are not stationary but continuously shift.
originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Blue Shift
Two different concepts entirely.
Y’all are really gonna freak when Guam capsizes.
On 15 January, they are set to update the World Magnetic Model, which describes the planet’s magnetic field and underlies all modern navigation, from the systems that steer ships at sea to Google Maps on smartphones.
The most recent version of the model came out in 2015 and was supposed to last until 2020 — but the magnetic field is changing so rapidly that researchers have to fix the model now. “The error is increasing all the time,” says Arnaud Chulliat, a geomagnetist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Centers for Environmental Information.
The problem lies partly with the moving pole and partly with other shifts deep within the planet. Liquid churning in Earth’s core generates most of the magnetic field, which varies over time as the deep flows change. In 2016, for instance, part of the magnetic field temporarily accelerated deep under northern South America and the eastern Pacific Ocean. Satellites such as the European Space Agency’s Swarm mission tracked the shift.
By early 2018, the World Magnetic Model was in trouble. Researchers from NOAA and the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh had been doing their annual check of how well the model was capturing all the variations in Earth’s magnetic field. They realized that it was so inaccurate that it was about to exceed the acceptable limit for navigational errors.
originally posted by: Quantumgamer1776
Isn’t this highly accelerated? I thought I remembered hearing it was inches per year.