Science
Related: About this forumEarth’s Magnetic Field Is Weakening And We Don’t Know Why
New data released by the European Space Agency reveals that Earths magnetic poles are weakening much faster than was previously thought. The data was collected by the ESAs Swarm satellites, a set of three orbital satellites designed to track the strength, direction and variations of the Earths geomagnetic field.
This recent set of measurements reveals that our geomagnetic field is weakening by around 5% a year, which is nearly ten times faster than previous estimates. According to the a press release by the ESA, the data shows that the field is weakening faster in some places than others:
It shows clearly that the field has weakened by about 3.5% at high latitudes over North America, while it has strengthened about 2% over Asia. The region where the field is at its weakest the South Atlantic Anomaly has moved steadily westward and weakened further by about 2%.
This new data might foreshadow a coming reversal of Earths magnetic poles, an event thought to occur around every 100,00 years, with the last reversal happening during the human Stone Age. While some Doomsday sayers believe that this magnetic reversal could mark the end of life on Earth, the consensus among geoscientists is that the worst effect could be the re-labeling all of Earths compasses.
more
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/05/earths-magnetic-field-is-weakening-and-we-dont-know-why/
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)Who to believe? Scientists or doomsday sayers...
cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)in the past and there isnt anything in the fossil record to suggest its caused any extinction level events on a global scale across multiple species.
virtualobserver
(8,760 posts)It affects sunspots and solar flares.
Instead of relabeling compasses, we could just switch the names of the poles.
cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)virtualobserver
(8,760 posts)padfun
(1,780 posts)but overall, it wont be much different than Y2K, or the March 1984 "great alignment", or any other doomsday even that seems to happen about every 20 years or so.
Edit: Oh, I almost forgot about Dec 21,2012. Is anyone left on earth after that?
greiner3
(5,214 posts)They can now get rid of their inventory of NESWs stickems. And none too soon
Viva_La_Revolution
(28,791 posts)This kinda stuff gives me a raging brainer
WhiteTara
(29,676 posts)At first I imagined us zooming off into space like a balloon that is losing its air!
Gore1FL
(21,027 posts)TexasProgresive
(12,148 posts)How long will it take for the flip. If there is a period of no magnetic field will we be vulnerable to radiation from space that is now directed around the earth by its mag fields?
How Does the Earth's Magnetic Field Protect Us From Space Radiation?
Dangerous particles don't hit the Earth's surface because they are forced by the magnetic field to move around the Earth. Particles do enter at the funnels over the poles or they gain entry far downstream from the Earth. The particles that enter downstream or at the magnetotail cause the auroral lights.
Other higher energy particle radiation that could endanger life on Earth is forced to drift around the Earth within two large donut-shaped regions called the radiation belts. Invisible magnetic fields are the reason that particle radiation moves in this way.
http://www.windows2universe.org/glossary/plasmaspheric_gain.html
cstanleytech
(26,080 posts)as I pointed out its happened alot of other times in the earths past and yet there is no corresponding evidence in the fossil record to support it being the cause of massive die offs in the past.
If you want to worry about something though then worry about the effects of the pollution we humans pump out as that in the short term (short term being a geological age of the earth) probably poses more of a threat to the majority of advanced life forms on the planet than the magnetic field flipping.
TexasProgresive
(12,148 posts)Jim__
(14,045 posts)From LiveScience:
...
Earth's magnetic field takes between 1,000 and 10,000 years to reverse, and in the process, it greatly diminishes before it re-aligns. "It's not a sudden flip, but a slow process, during which the field strength becomes weak, very probably the field becomes more complex and might show more than two poles for a while, and then builds up in strength and [aligns] in the opposite direction," said Monika Korte, the scientific director of the Niemegk Geomagnetic Observatory at GFZ Potsdam in Germany.
The scientists say it's the weak in-between phase that would be roughest on Earthlings.
According to John Tarduno, professor of geophysics at the University of Rochester, a strong magnetic field helps protect Earth from blasts of radiation from the sun. "Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occasionally occur on the Sun, and sometimes hurtle directly toward Earth," Tarduno said. "Some of the particles associated with CMEs can be blocked by Earth's magnetic field. With a weak field, this shielding is less efficient."
The charged particles bombarding Earth's atmosphere during solar storms would punch holes in Earth's atmosphere, and this could hurt humans. "Ozone holes, like that over Antarctica (which today are due to an entirely different cause related to man) could form as solar particles interact with the atmosphere in a cascade of chemical reactions. These 'holes' would not be permanent, but might be present on one- to 10-year timescales arguably important enough to be a concern in terms of skin cancer rates," Tarduno said.
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TexasProgresive
(12,148 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)And knitters.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)are slowing down the earth's rotational speed, duh.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)And they will believe it!
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)a representative from OK sad something almost as silly on the House floor. We are such a backwards ass country.
Ineeda
(3,626 posts)I think he said wind power would use up all the wind, and I think another one said solar power would use up all the sun. True story.
On edit: it was Joe Barton (R) Texas, in 2009 (House Committee on Energy) who said using wind power would slow down the wind. Also, some southern town rejected building a solar field because it would suck up all the sun.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Our country is a laughingstock
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)greiner3
(5,214 posts)ThoughtCriminal
(14,009 posts)Yargle Bargle!
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)It makes gravity stop working on the special people.
Jack Bone
(2,023 posts)Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)nikto
(3,284 posts)Sheesh.
No big deal.