Earth's Magnetic Field Is Fading

Earth's Magnetic Field Is Fading

John Roach
for National Geographic News
September 9, 2004


Earth's magnetic field is fading. Today it is about 10 percent weaker than it was when German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss started keeping tabs on it in 1845, scientists say.

link to story
news.nationalgeographic.com...

Oh well, when it goes so do we. It was a nice time, I hope you all got what you wanted out of life!

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It is fading due to a long overdue North-South pole flip. Usually it happens about once every 200,000 years, but the last time was 700,000 years ago.

It will get weak and moreover spotty, with pockets of north field in Southern Hemisphere and visa versa. Eventually the North magnetic field in the Southern Hemisphere will strengthen and stableize. The Northern Hemisphere will become magnetically south.

This will take about a 1000 years.

Keep lots of sunblock, hats and UV sunglasses around.
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I'm not too worried about mass extinction with regards to this. As pointed out in the article it has happened many times in Earth's history and no evidence has been found (yet) that it led to a massive revision of the life on Earth.

Besides, there's a much greater chance that we will end up destroying ourselves long before something like this is of any real concern.

i could swear if we did a search on the boards we have covered this topic a good 10 times in the last 3 months.....

Originally posted by Asclepius
i could swear if we did a search on the boards we have covered this topic a good 10 times in the last 3 months.....

Who cares how many times its been talked about we would like to hear everyones opinions veryone has a say!

Originally posted by slank
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It is fading due to a long overdue North-South pole flip. Usually it happens about once every 200,000 years, but the last time was 700,000 years ago.

Magnetic field reversals aren't a regular event, or rather they don't occur in any known predictable cycles.

It will get weak and moreover spotty, with pockets of north field in Southern Hemisphere and visa versa. Eventually the North magnetic field in the Southern Hemisphere will strengthen and stableize. The Northern Hemisphere will become magnetically south.
The northern hemisphere actually is a magnetic south field. Thats why the north of a compass points to it.

This will take about a 1000 years.

There's been lots of different estimates as to when it will happen, what research are you using?

Keep lots of sunblock, hats and UV sunglasses around.
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I'm not quite so certain that there'll be a complete loss of field strength all around the planet, and I don't think that UV radiation is deflected by the mag field anyway, its ionized particles that are defelected by it no?

devil
Who cares how many times its been talked about

I think the previous poster was just saying that perhaps, if nothing new is being brought up, then why start a new thread?

We will have the technology to stop this from happening if a real threat was imminent anyway. The government are already housing technology that is way beyond our comprehension.

Originally posted by Joey Crow
We will have the technology to stop this from happening if a real threat was imminent anyway. The government are already housing technology that is way beyond our comprehension.

i really doubt that. It cant be THAT far beyond our comprehension. The government is run by fellow human beings, just like us, not super intelligent beings ^.^

Originally posted by Nygdan

Originally posted by slank
.
It is fading due to a long overdue North-South pole flip. Usually it happens about once every 200,000 years, but the last time was 700,000 years ago.

Magnetic field reversals aren't a regular event, or rather they don't occur in any known predictable cycles.

It will get weak and moreover spotty, with pockets of north field in Southern Hemisphere and visa versa. Eventually the North magnetic field in the Southern Hemisphere will strengthen and stableize. The Northern Hemisphere will become magnetically south.

The northern hemisphere actually is a magnetic south field. Thats why the north of a compass points to it.

This will take about a 1000 years.

There's been lots of different estimates as to when it will happen, what research are you using?

Keep lots of sunblock, hats and UV sunglasses around.
.

I'm not quite so certain that there'll be a complete loss of field strength all around the planet, and I don't think that UV radiation is deflected by the mag field anyway, its ionized particles that are defelected by it no?

devil
Who cares how many times its been talked about

I think the previous poster was just saying that perhaps, if nothing new is being brought up, then why start a new thread?

my earth science text book says it takes about 1000s years for a switch to occur. I have it right here

The government is run by fellow human beings, just like us, not super intelligent beings ^.^

i hope to God that i am nothing like the fellow human beings running our goverment,besides im better looking and ive got a mate down the pub who rekons he is super intelligent!!

The Magnetic Field is Fading for the Magnetic Poles, the North Pole is Magnetic South and visa versa...one problem, wouldn't we have to change the lettering on the compasses? hmm...my brain isn't functioning properly on this question...lol

Who knows when the poles will flip it could be in 2005, 2008, 2012, or even 2056 the fields will drop but we're in no harm since the a natural occurance of the nature of Space will protect us...no need to worry and within hours, days or weeks the poles are back up again, not even going to be noticed by the mass population if they are not told. We may get more Auroras, or even the moon may try to struggle free at the time but hey, it wont go very far...lol, I'm hoping it will decide to stay put exactly where it is... it's slowly spiralling out..I love the moon...

Phoenix

[edit on 19/9/04 by PhoenixSGC]

Originally posted by PhoenixSGC
The Magnetic Field is Fading for the Magnetic Poles, the North Pole is Magnetic South and visa versa...one problem, wouldn't we have to change the lettering on the compasses? hmm...my brain isn't functioning properly on this question...lol

Who knows when the poles will flip it could be in 2005, 2008, 2012, or even 2056 the fields will drop but we're in no harm since the a natural occurance of the nature of Space will protect us...no need to worry and within hours, days or weeks the poles are back up again, not even going to be noticed by the mass population if they are not told. We may get more Auroras, or even the moon may try to struggle free at the time but hey, it wont go very far...lol, I'm hoping it will decide to stay put exactly where it is... it's slowly spiralling out

..I love the moon...

Phoenix

[edit on 19/9/04 by PhoenixSGC]

more like 2100. It takes about 1000 years for the poles to flip

fact is there is no piont speculating on what the goverment can do to stop this or have any super duper tec to help us ,theres far to much half factual information beeing used to back up posts knowaday's , its like saying if X avent was going to happen the goverment will use this alien ship to save us what alien ship this is all half factual info