Oh-oh – Magnetic Field Changing Fast

A magnetic pole reversal is overdue. Such an event would result in an massive influx of radiation. It would damage electrical equipment, and cosmic rays could cause mutations. Some people feel a crustal pole shift could also result.

There is evidence that the next reversal could be as soon as 2012:

Rapid changes in the churning movement of Earth’s liquid outer core are weakening the magnetic field in some regions of the planet’s surface, a new study says.

“What is so surprising is that rapid, almost sudden, changes take place in the Earth’s magnetic field,” said study co-author Nils Olsen, a geophysicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen.

…The changes “may suggest the possibility of an upcoming reversal of the geomagnetic field,” said study co-author Mioara Mandea, a scientist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam.

…The decline in the magnetic field also is opening Earth’s upper atmosphere to intense charged particle radiation, scientists say.

Satellite data show the geomagnetic field decreasing in the South Atlantic region, Mandea said, adding that an oval-shaped area east of Brazil is significantly weaker than similar latitudes in other parts of the world.

“It is in this region that the shielding effect of the magnetic field is severely reduced, thus allowing high energy particles of the hard radiation belt to penetrate deep into the upper atmosphere to altitudes below a hundred kilometers (62 miles),” Mandea said

Scientists believe a reversal would take place over several thousand years, but I suggest that it could happen overnight. Thinking in terms of thousands of years is directly due to the timescales used when dating previous reversals – they wouldn’t be able to tell if it took one day, because they cannot date events that accurately.

Related posts:

1. Baby Earth Might Uncover Magnetic Field Secrets
2. Oceans Might Cause Magnetic Pole Shifts
3. Earth’s Magnetic Field in the Year 2012
4. Cataclysm Due Any Time Now
5. Magnetic Poles at the Equator?