Compasses going crazy...Theories and Research

Build homemade compass, and after magnetizing the needle, it points north, like it should be. I live in western Finland. My other compass in my telescope is pointing north too.

Compasses has been known to go crazy or go way offset before a large earthquake

Just read the whole thread. Don't know why, but I did. I'm in the UK and can't find my compass but will get some friends to try it out with their iPhones. It's not much but here's a small amount of further reading and tinkering, but it only applies to the UK, it's about OS maps and magnetic North as mentioned by a poster a couple of pages back.

Magnetic North: the direction indicated by a magnetic compass. Magnetic North moves slowly with a variable rate and currently is west of Grid North in Great Britain.

Example - Penzance

The Magnetic North to Grid North is predicted to be 0° 35' west of grid north at the centre of the sheet in July 2011, with an estimated rate of change of 10' east a year.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk...

And at the bottom of that page there's a link to a Grid Magnetic Angle Calculator (for the UK). Perhaps a similar website exists in the US, surely by a similar mapping agency. Anyway, a good read especially just waiting to see whos east is west and north is south.

I understand where all these discrepancies are coming from. If you can shoot a gun or a rifle, you will know that just a simple deviation from a far distance away will hit something that is totally out of line. In this case, it is just not miles, it is hundreds of miles. The compasses will not be able to tell you exactly where the position is because you are too far away, the compasses you are holding are not able to tell you the exact deviation. You need a digital compass to tell you that. 1 degree if you are 1000 miles away from the north, will be different from a person holding the same compass 10 miles from the same spot.

This may explain something, not everything.
Source: Wikipedia

Change of declination in time and space Magnetic declination varies both from place to place, and with the passage of time. As a traveller cruises the east coast of the United States, for example, the declination varies from 20 degrees west (in Maine) to zero (in Florida), to 10 degrees east (in Texas), meaning a compass adjusted at the beginning of the journey would have a true north error of over 30 degrees if not adjusted for the changing declination. In most areas, the spatial variation reflects the irregularities of the flows deep in the earth; in some areas, deposits of iron ore or magnetite in the Earth's crust may contribute strongly to the declination. Similarly, secular changes to these flows result in slow changes to the field strength and direction at the same point on the Earth. The magnetic declination in a given area may (most likely will) change slowly over time, possibly as little as 2–2.5 degrees every hundred years or so, depending upon how far from the magnetic poles it is. For a location closer to the pole like Ivujivik, the declination may change by 1 degree every three years. This may be insignificant to most travellers, but can be important if using magnetic bearings from old charts or metes (directions) in old deeds for locating places with any precision. Simply speaking, true north is the direction in which the north pole is located along the Earth's rotational axis, while magnetic north is the direction toward which the compass needle points

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f25c5d1a7092.jpeg[/atsimg]

Nothing strange about the magnetic declination here on my compass. I live in the South Cariboo of British Columbia, Canada. I also tested a magnetised sewing needle in a cork in water and got roughly the same bearing as my compass.

The USGS Geomagnetism Program should be of interest. They provide real-time data of the magnetic field. It seems there was an anomaly (compared to the past 5 days) that started around 3/19 11:00 UTC and ended around 13:30, followed by a period of usual fluctuation in magnetic induction.

I'm going to keep an eye on it and check my compass and sewing needle when it becomes unstable again, just to see how it correlates with a fluctuation in direction.

Palaeomagnetic results from lava flows recording a geomagnetic polarity reversal at Steens Mountain, Oregon suggest the occurrence of brief episodes of astonishingly rapid field change of six degrees per day.

Source: www.nature.com...

It'd be amazing if we got to witness and study a geomagnetic reversal within our lifetimes, although I won't hold my hope.

reply to post by markymint


I live in Penzance (UK) and that was very interesting thanks!
Will get out with my compass and take some readings..

I dont own a compass...never really came to a time where i habe needed one. I live in Sayre,PA and for about a week now when i go outsife during the day the birds i dint know what type but anyway they seem to me to be acting really wierd. there is alot of them as well and it seems to me that they are flying with no real ryhme or reason. theres usaully 3 seperate ill call em flocks that continously are flying in circles even seems like they are almost flying into eash other, i dont know seems really odd to me especially since i havent really ever seen that kind of behavior before

All three of my compasses seem to be functioning properly.
Hmmm.

reply to post by Newbomb Turk


Im in tucson too. Keep in mind that I-10 curves around sw tucson. My compass is correct. Although I notice it was off 10 degrees west yesterday.

I feel like my moral complass is spot on..does that count??

..man..I meant compass, I dont know what a complass is. It sounds like a dangerous piece of machinery from an old soviet era machine shop!!

For the record, I'm in CT and my compass is pointing the same direction it's always pointed. I can't explain why some compasses aren't pointing North, but I'm thinking it's not a pole shift. Then again, doesn't a pole "shift" start with multiple poles appearing in different areas?

I'm in West Sussex, England and my reading is normal.




EDIT: Just spotted this new thread about the CERN Hadron Collider I know nothing about physics but thought maybe it might be possible that turning it back on could have a temporary effect on the magnetic field? I don't know.


www.abovetopsecret.com...

FYI Cornwall, UK.
Just taken some readings with an iPhone 4, strangely watched north shift from too far west to north and then from north to too far east

Not really trusting it at the moment, so heading out to buy a proper one. Will be useful to have anyway

I have created a Google map and set to so anyone can edit it because I trust you all. Red balloon for east is north, green balloon for north is north. Blue balloon if you're clueless.

Edit to add: click save when done adding your balloon. You can add degrees you're off in the notes if you like.

ONLY GENERAL LOCATIONS, PLEASE. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING.

Let's see how everyone is reading this deal.

Google map, east is north

reply to post by ahnggk
Oh, I do pray you are not right. The biggest anomolies tonight have been around the New Madrid and North Ohio and to South Carolina. My neighbors and I have made routes to higher ground, got our food storage, any shaking and we are out of here. And now something has erupted in the Gulf causing 100 mile oil slick, and I bet it is coming right out of the sea floor. I can see now this thread is going to go on for a long time. Almost 7 am guess I will try to go to sleep again.

reply to post by billxam


You can put a green one somewhere by moncton NB(east coast canada), I have no idea how to put balloons.

Cant find my compass so used my brand new i Phone ,as it doesn't have a compass app i floated it in a bowl of water. Unfortunatly it blew up sending water and i phone parts in all directions so I'm none the wiser.

"The field switches directions every few thousand years or more. It weakens for about 100 years before it 'flops', and in the transision, multiple magnetic poles may occur. "
www.eng-tips.com...

So, multiple poles, multiple postitions for "true north" depending on where you are located on the earth

and then there's the possibility of scalar and HAARP magnetic pulses, right?

just thinking out loud here...

reply to post by MadDogtheHunter


My compass is a cheap one, but it seems fine. I live in Delaware.
Maybe if we knew general locations of the posters with compasses we could figure out where the anomaly is. There are times when magnetic anomalies show up on the earth, like a small pole locally, and compasses near by will point to it. These appear all over the earth, but they come and go. So it is possible, there is one near your friend in Va. and one near you as well. But, I should pick up the one in Va too, but I'm not.
Just some thoughts on it.

BTW, apps on phones, and GPS use satellites to determine north, not magnetic fields.