Earth Magnetic Field Reversal-is it true, can we survive?

Scientists say they have evidence that every so often the earths magnetic pole shift or "reverse" The evidence is in the chrytal structure of certain rocks that were at one point molten then cooled rapidly. It would seem however if this were to happen every living thing would be fried and Earth would be as sterile as Mars.

Nothing happens w/ magnetic shift. I saw a Nature Channel piece on this years ago, the Earth is in a magnetic shift as we speak from what I remember of the show, the Wiki page says it takes a long time to accomplish.

"Geomagnetic reversal"
en.wikipedia.org...

All that's speculated on that page is this:

Although the inspection of past reversals does not indicate biological extinctions, present society with its reliance on electricity and electromagnetic effects (e.g. radio, satellite communications) may be vulnerable to technological disruptions in the event of a full field reversal.

Glatzmaier and collaborator Paul Roberts of UCLA have made a numerical model of the electromagnetic, fluid dynamical processes of Earth's interior, and computed it on a Cray supercomputer. The results reproduced key features of the magnetic field over more than 40,000 years of simulated time. Additionally, the computer-generated field reversed itself.

As per 'pole shift' theories, well, all the Project Camelot and Zeta heads speculate to, it's a bit more controversial:

Pole shift theories are also not to be confused with Geomagnetic reversal, the periodic reversal of the earth's magnetic field (effectively switching the north and south magnetic poles). Geomagnetic reversal has more acceptance in the scientific community than pole shift theories.

Recent work by scientists and geologists Adam Maloof of Princeton University and Galen Halverson of Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France, indicates that Earth indeed rebalanced itself around 800 million years ago during the Precambrian time period.[10] They tested this idea by studying magnetic minerals in sedimentary rocks in a Norwegian archipelago. Using these minerals, Maloof and Halverson found that the north pole shifted more than 50 degrees — about the current distance between Alaska and the equator — in less than 20 million years. This reasoning is supported by a record of changes in sea level and ocean chemistry in the Norwegian sediments that could be explained by true polar wander, the team reports in the September–October 2006 issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin.[11]

Research using GPS, conducted by Geoffrey Blewitt of the University of Nevada, has shown that normal seasonal changes in the distribution of ice and water cause minor movements of the poles.

"Pole shift theory"
en.wikipedia.org...



[edit on 21-11-2007 by anhinga]

I have often wondered if the poles shift, "would electricity and modern electronics continue to work as they were designed?".

I don't know the answer and there seems to be little info on this particular aspect of pole shifting. Just something to consider.

But what do we have that relies a particular magnetic field orientation?

Perhaps there's a small risk if the reversal happens suddenly IE it could cause protection relays on transmission lines and generators to operate if the reversal is fast enough to produce spurious induced voltages (motion of a conductor through a magnetic field generates voltage and in this case it'll be the magnetic field moving, not the conductor). Navigational equipment relying on the field polarity like magnetic compasses will go haywire till things settle down and the compass points the opposite direction.

It won't be the end of civilisation but perhaps a few ships & planes will get lost for a while if they've lost the art of navigating via the stars and sextant etc. there's a possible risk of briefly increased radiation reaching the earth's surface and even disruption to some satellites because of the moving magnetic field inducing spurious voltages in sensitive circuits.

It all depends on how long it takes to reverse but it'll be a flip of ~180 degrees and not a total collapse and buildup in reverse as proposed by some doomsday prophets.

edit - pathetic typing 'skillz'

[edit on 21/11/2007 by Pilgrum]

reply to post by Pilgrum


I hear all your points, lead me to investigate this further... the Wiki page had a link to this Economist article from early this year:

There is, however, a growing body of evidence that the Earth's magnetic field is about to disappear, at least for a while. The geological record shows that it flips from time to time, with the south pole becoming the north, and vice versa. On average, such reversals take place every 500,000 years, but there is no discernible pattern. Flips have happened as close together as 50,000 years, though the last one was 780,000 years ago. But, as discussed at the Greenland Space Symposium, held in Kangerlussuaq this week, the signs are that another flip is coming soon.

One of those signs is that the strength of the field has been falling by 5% a century recently. A similar (though more rapid) diminution accompanies the reversing of the sun's magnetic field, which happens every 11 yrs or so. Other evidence comes from old navigation records. Researchers such as Nils Olsen, of the Danish Space Center, have used such records to chart the growth of patches of abnormal magnetism. They are able to do so because these records use both compass bearings and astronomical observations to locate a vessel. The changing relationship between the two shows that patches of abnormal magnetism have been growing off SE Africa and in the S Atlantic.

Just when the magnetic field will flip is impossible to predict from what is known at the moment; the best guess is that there are still several centuries to go. Nor is it clear how long its protective shield will be down. (The record in the rocks is little help, since a geological eyeblink represents many human lifetimes.) But understanding how the magnetosphere works now should help to deal with the consequences if and when it vanishes.

The famous night-time auroras (borealis in the N, australis in the S) are the result of particles streaming in from the tail. But particles come in from the crown, as well, forming invisible daytime auroras that Dr Friis was among the first to study.

Like the weather on Earth, this space weather has consequences. If it gets nasty, communications satellites may be knocked out and radio communications within the atmosphere disrupted. In extreme circumstances, power grids may go down, too. Foul weather in space is also bad news for astronauts. A bad storm could kill an unshielded individual. But although the source of such foul space weather is known—it happens when giant flares on the surface of the sun pour out more protons and electrons than normal—the details depend on structures within the magnetosphere that are only now coming under scrutiny. Sometimes storms drift past the Earth with little impact. On other occasions they pummel the magnetosphere's crown to about half its normal distance from the Earth's surface. Furthermore, the magnetosphere's structure is layered, like an onion. The same type of particle can take on entirely different characteristics, depending on which layer it is in. The art of forecasting space weather is in its infancy.

"Look down, look up, look out!"
www.economist.com...

This pole reversal, LIKE GLOBAL WARMING, is a natural cycle that occurs every several thousand years.
Still serious nonetheless but the worse that can happen is that we might expect to see many animals lose their sense of direction. Expect more beached whales and wayward birds.

reply to post by Alxandro


I agree Alexando. But, what worries me is the nutral field while the poles are flipping and the duration of the reversal. With out that field we could be suject to hundreds of times the amount of solar radiation that normaly gets through. the kind of thing we worried about durring the ozone hole hoax of the 70's and 80's !

Doomed. We're all doomed. A magnetic field reversal will cause all life on Earth to be roasted to death by solar flare radiation. The only thing that might survive are rock-dwelling archaea, and maybe a few bits of bacteria fortunate enough to be sheilded by lead or some other heavy elements.

Oh, well. Humanity has had a good run. Time to call it quits. See what evolves afterwards.

reply to post by Nohup


we could move underground to. Nothing to prvent that. We have the ability to manufacture grow lamps. massive digging machines to carve out the earth. we also have caves we could utilize. man has survided this before we can survive it again.

I for one intuit strongly the inevitability of a complete polar shift in my lifetime.

I wonder if you could build the magnetic opposites now to back up our power supplies etc so that when the event happens we can shift without any catastrophic delays in goods and services?


One more thought. When the shift occurs will the human brain be affected and if so to what degree and how?

Could this be the event that opens up the next dimensional reality?

some good points antar
As far as technology goes im not sure if it will even still work so may be redundant, with a reverse of the magnetic field the technology you will get will be more highly advanced compared to what we have now

as for the human mind it is possible that there would be a significant change.

i have no evidence, but it could be possible

Originally posted by hinky
I have often wondered if the poles shift, "would electricity and modern electronics continue to work as they were designed?".

Oh come one! Take you cell phone and a laptop and try to spin on your chair real fast. This will mean that the direction of the magnetic field that you are immersed in, changes radically many times over. Examine the cell phone and laptop. Post the results here.

Yeah, the infamous pole/magnetic reversal. This has and will render the magnetosphere useless for a period of time and Earth (as someone eluded to and was spot on) will be bombarded by higher energy particles that are nomally deflected away. This is the true cause of evolution and explains the rapid disapearance and emergence of some species. Most biological entities will die and those that don't will be genetically mutated into the next round of life on earth.

An except from a startling article I found recently:

"Every 1 to 2 million years, the magnetic field of the earth reverses the north and south magnetic poles. The earth itself does not reverse - just the magnetic field. During the reversal process, the earth's magnetic field, which usually acts as a shield protecting lifeforms from intense solar X-rays, gamma rays, and deadly dangerous ionizing particle radiation, suddenly disappears. The deadly intense solar radiation is momentarily allowed to strike the surface of the earth.

Within hours, about 99 percent of all life on earth is instantly killed by the intense radiation. Those few 1 percent of survivors, hidden in caves, in holes in the earth, or under water are highly deformed, damaged and mutated by the intense radiation causing direct damage to the DNA molecules in their reproductive cells. But the radiation damage is not visible in those survivors, but it is clearly seen in their direct offspring."

Here is an interesting link regarding this theory:

Here, near bottom of page

Very interesting stuff indeed.

That amount of radiation (chant "sterilize sterilize sterilize" in your robotic Star Trek voice) would lead to some kind of radioactive activation in the ground rocks.

We'd have seen it.

Then there's the fact that 99% of life didn't die the last time it happened either.

The magnetic poles shift from north to south and south to north all the time, and have done so hundreds of times, not a single time is it in alignment's with an extinction event. Nothing would change, nothing, except compass's would point magnetic south instead of north. The geological evidence for this is overwhelming and unquestioned. The magnetite particles will point in the magnetic direction of the current pull, and so the rocks can therefore be a "compass" if you will to when the poles were different since we know the dates of the rocks. Neither directional pull has any geological or natural difference except we exist in a north pointing time so we view it as normal. Any Geologist can tell you this.

I forgot to add, this isnt a normal predictable process, it is comepletely random, as is the cool down and warm up periods of the earth, which has happened countless times, I've heard of very convincing theories, but there irrelevent here.

[edit on 1-31-2008 by Ruggeder]

reply to post by Ruggeder


Hi there~ its not my wish to tell you your wrong hopefully you know more than I; but I watched a programme (I'm at work and cant recall the name will update later) that explained that this happens all of a sudden; how can you say there will be no terrible effect for life on earth...doesn't it imply that the Van so n so belt would reverse??? anyway wont we be subjected to the suns harm...??? Hope you can advise

pilgrim01