Compasses going crazy...Theories and Research

Click here for more information.

Northeastern Indiana here, and had my wife check hers on her way to work...

(she does know how to use a compass, before anyone asks )

She said, according to the nice compass she has, it was pointing East, about 20 degrees north from east.

It was working fine the last time she had to check it, so it has changed somewhere in that time since. I'll be asking my brother to check his, as well, and post the results here.

Northern germany the same...
My compass is showing north at ca. 20 degree towards east!

Been Googling for a while here. Several forums have similar threads; compasses off.

WJXT channel 4 in Jacksonville had a news story recently about it too.

First bad reading start end of Feb. 2011. No found references before then.

I have an application that searches 100 search engines and am doing a constant scan for the next few hours. Will post results.

Let me know if anyone wants links; some to to questionable forums.

Originally posted by MadDogtheHunter
There has been a lot of topics posted here on ATS about possible shifting of the earths magnetic poles. I was on the skeptical side for a while on that subject. I mean, yeah, I know its happened before and will likely happen again. But I didn't think in my lifetime.

That said.......

I was digging through some old boxes of junk this morning. And I came across my old compass. One of those good ones that allow you to do line-of-sight measurements and all. I opened it up, and noticed something really odd. It was showing magnetic north towards what would be dead-east from where I was standing. At first, I thought maybe it was broke or maybe something in my home was causing the faulty readings. So, I tried it far away from my home, same results. Later in the day, I told a good friend of mine who lives 2 states south of me and he checked his compass. His was showing magnetic north in the east too!

Is it possible that the quake in Japan altered the poles? The quake DID mess up earths axis slightly. Or is something else going on here? Two good compasses over 600 miles apart, acting the same way, is very suspicious to me.

Can anyone locate any information that might help solve this strange phenomenon?

edit on 3/19/2011 by MadDogtheHunter because: (no reason given)

Some sources said that magnetism of Atlantic rift is growing and that it is third magnetic pole. This can explain why compasses point at him. Here in East Europe magnetic nort is moved 2 degrees to west from beginning of this year. And with your information looks like north of compasses from both side of Atlantic point to Atlantic rift.

Something tells me this guy is about to be proven right.

Originally posted by petar258

Originally posted by MadDogtheHunter
There has been a lot of topics posted here on ATS about possible shifting of the earths magnetic poles. I was on the skeptical side for a while on that subject. I mean, yeah, I know its happened before and will likely happen again. But I didn't think in my lifetime.

That said.......

I was digging through some old boxes of junk this morning. And I came across my old compass. One of those good ones that allow you to do line-of-sight measurements and all. I opened it up, and noticed something really odd. It was showing magnetic north towards what would be dead-east from where I was standing. At first, I thought maybe it was broke or maybe something in my home was causing the faulty readings. So, I tried it far away from my home, same results. Later in the day, I told a good friend of mine who lives 2 states south of me and he checked his compass. His was showing magnetic north in the east too!

Is it possible that the quake in Japan altered the poles? The quake DID mess up earths axis slightly. Or is something else going on here? Two good compasses over 600 miles apart, acting the same way, is very suspicious to me.

Can anyone locate any information that might help solve this strange phenomenon?

edit on 3/19/2011 by MadDogtheHunter because: (no reason given)

Some sources said that magnetism of Atlantic rift is growing and that it is third magnetic pole. This can explain why compasses point at him. Here in East Europe magnetic nort is moved 2 degrees to west from beginning of this year. And with your information looks like north of compasses from both side of Atlantic point to Atlantic rift.

I'd be really interested to see the sources if ytou have them.

Thanks

Magnetic Declination: All pilots know, and use this formula when flying. Link to online calculator at bottom.

Definition

* (Navigation) the angle of difference between the direction of the North Pole and that of the north magnetic pole.
Also called magnetic variation
1. In navigation, at a given place and time, the horizontal angle between the true north and magnetic north measured east or west according to whether magnetic north lies east or west of true north. See also magnetic declination.
2. In cartography, the annual change in direction of the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic field.
Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. US Department of Defense 2005.
Online magnetic declination calculator NOAA'S Geophysical Data Center:

www.ngdc.noaa.gov...

Des

reply to post by MadDogtheHunter


Bud I thunk you might be near a large metallic deposit or something, I'm in jersey and Ive checked 3 compasses theyre all peachy

Originally posted by OccultScientist

Originally posted by petar258

Originally posted by MadDogtheHunter
There has been a lot of topics posted here on ATS about possible shifting of the earths magnetic poles. I was on the skeptical side for a while on that subject. I mean, yeah, I know its happened before and will likely happen again. But I didn't think in my lifetime.

That said.......

I was digging through some old boxes of junk this morning. And I came across my old compass. One of those good ones that allow you to do line-of-sight measurements and all. I opened it up, and noticed something really odd. It was showing magnetic north towards what would be dead-east from where I was standing. At first, I thought maybe it was broke or maybe something in my home was causing the faulty readings. So, I tried it far away from my home, same results. Later in the day, I told a good friend of mine who lives 2 states south of me and he checked his compass. His was showing magnetic north in the east too!

Is it possible that the quake in Japan altered the poles? The quake DID mess up earths axis slightly. Or is something else going on here? Two good compasses over 600 miles apart, acting the same way, is very suspicious to me.

Can anyone locate any information that might help solve this strange phenomenon?

edit on 3/19/2011 by MadDogtheHunter because: (no reason given)

Some sources said that magnetism of Atlantic rift is growing and that it is third magnetic pole. This can explain why compasses point at him. Here in East Europe magnetic nort is moved 2 degrees to west from beginning of this year. And with your information looks like north of compasses from both side of Atlantic point to Atlantic rift.

I'd be really interested to see the sources if ytou have them.

Thanks

in zetatalk.com
www.google.com...

Here in Manchester UK, I just checked my compass and North is now where North East used to be

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Well.. This makes me want to go out and buy a compass...

Always worth having a good quality compass in my opinion - I got a military grade one for a climbing expedition but as an amateur astronomer it also came in handy for navigating the night sky as well.
As for my compass, nothing changed, north is still north, I have it marked on my patio for my telescope mount.

reply to post by UberL33t


that's what it seems like to me, some sort of local disturbance. some people are saying their compasses work fine, while the ones in the southeastern U.S. seem to be malfunctioning. NEW MADRID anyone?

On Friday night I was showing my Korean mother in law my iPad. She was blown away that we could see her old block in Korea using maps and such. So I fired up Starwalk and pointed it at the sky, and at first I kept thinking, no east is THAT way. It was frustrating, so I walked outside into the street and we got to be looking at the moon and then I turned it off, thinking I had interference. Having read this, it is strange now.

My iPhone compass is now off. It shows north a little to the east. I have nicer compasses in my emergency kits upstairs, so I am going to check this out after the kiddie wake up.

I'm a former Ship Navigator, so my explanation might be a little hard to follow...

Magnetic declination is the angle between magnetic north (the direction the north end of a compass needle points) and true north. The declination is positive when the magnetic north is east of true north. The term magnetic variation is a synonym, and is more often used in navigation. Isogonic lines are where the declination has the same value, and the lines where the declination is zero are called agonic lines.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org...

The Earth is like a giant magnet, surrounded by a magnetic field. This magnetic field, which is a vector with both direction and intensity, is generated by a dynamo process in the fluid outer core of the Earth. Due to the chaotic movement of the core fluid, the Earth's magnetic field gradually changes over the years.

Because compasses were used before magnetism was fully understood, the magnetic pole located near Earth's geographic North Pole was called a "Magnetic North Pole", and the tip of a compass needle pointing (roughly) towards the Magnetic North Pole was also called the "Magnetic North Pole" of the needle. Now we know that opposite poles attract. Therefore, one of the poles must be a "Magnetic South Pole". Indeed, the magnetic pole near Earth's geographic North Pole, Earth's Magnetic North Pole is, from a physicists point of view, the southern magnetic pole (magnetic field lines are entering Earth). The red (North) tips of the compass needles are therefore attracted to the blue (south) pole of the Earth. However, convention maintains that the magnetic pole located in the northern hemisphere is called the "north" magnetic pole, while that in the southern hemisphere is the "south" magnetic pole, irregardless of the physics.

The difference between magnetic North and True North is called magnetic declination (or sometimes magnetic variation) and is measured in degrees east (positive) or west (negative) of True North. In the US, areas West of the Mississippi river (positive declination) the Mag compass points East of True North, and in areas East of Mississippi it points West of True North.

An erratic feature at the North geographic pole is due to the fact that the direction of True North changes drastically when stepping from one side of the geographic North Pole to the other side. In the same way, the direction of True North changes drastically when stepping from one side of the geographic South Pole to the other side. This is merely a mathematical complication arising from the definition of declination. A compass could be used for navigation even at the geographic poles, provided the horizontal magnetic field is strong enough to allow for reliable pointing. Presently this is the case at the geographic South Pole, but not at the geographic North Pole.

Here is my locations
Year Declination
2001 2° 12' E
2005 1° 44' E
2010 1° 8' E
2011 1° 0' E

To compute your locations declination try this site:
www.ngdc.noaa.gov...


SirRic

Iphone app compass in Brisbane, Australia is pointing north and says 0degrees North. I guess that's pretty spot on, yeah?

I'm getting completely diff readings than you guys.. i have one of those boat compasses (the sphere one), and it's completely flipped. North is SSE. This has to be wrong lmao.. so im making a compass to make sure.

I'm in the UK and my real compass is pointing North

North is still north here in south central Wisconsin.

Declination = 2° 19' W changing by 0° 5' W/year

Mine hasn't moved ... exactly where it has been for the last few months

I'm in the UK.