Earth's Magnetic Pole Is wandering off towards Siberia

[editor]

It's on the move!

Earth's north magnetic pole is on the move, unpredictably lurching away from the Canadian Arctic and toward Siberia. It's wandered so much, that the current representation of the entire globe's magnetic field, just updated in 2015, is now out of date. And so, geologists have come up with a new model.

This updated model, called the World Magnetic Model, was supposed to be published Jan. 15, but it's now been delayed to Jan. 30, on account of the government shutdown.

Once it's made public, the new model will inform a wide array of navigation, including those directing airplanes and ships to people checking Google Maps on their smart devices.

The World Magnetic Model is one of a handful of models — another is called the International Geomagnetic Reference Field — that track so-called declination, or the difference between true, or geographic, north (that is, the North Pole) and magnetic north (the point where your compass needle points). Knowing that declination for points across the globe allows one to convert between a magnetic bearing and a true bearing, according to a report on the 2015 model. In that way, ships, aircraft, antennas, drilling equipment and other devices can be oriented.

The latest World Magnetic Model was designed to last until 2020, but magnetic north's rapid and unexpected surge toward Siberia was so great, that researchers had to amend the model early, Arnaud Chulliat, a geomagnetist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) National Centers for Environmental Information, told Nature.

News of the magnetic north's meanderings isn't exactly new. Researchers figured out in the 1800s that magnetic north tended to drift. Then, in the mid-1990s, it began moving faster, from just over 9 miles (15 kilometers) a year to about 34 miles (55 km) annually, Nature reported. In 2018, magnetic north skipped over the International Date Line and entered the Eastern Hemisphere.

Core message
The North Pole’s erratic movements are largely the result of Earth's liquid-iron outer core, known as the core field. (Other factors play a role, too, including magnetic minerals in the crust and upper mantle, as well as electric currents created by the flow of seawater, but these influences are small compared to those from the

Earth's Magnetic Pole Is Wandering, Lurching Toward Siberia

 

[passenger]

So sad I feel for the younger generation this looks really bad

 

[twentythreedom]

Pesky Russians

 

[ska invita]

50 years worth of movement there

i heard if it flips upside down, which happens, we're fucked, but this reckons its not so bad
Why You (Probably) Shouldn't Worry About Earth's Magnetic Poles Flipping

 

[twentythreedom]

Nautical charts usually have a compass rose on them showing the local magnetic variation, eg

(random googled example)



E2a but yeah if a once in c.100,000 years poleshift happens (we're well overdue iirc) then we're all fucked

 

[Baronage-Phase]

I thought it took a long time for the actual shift to happen? Over 150 years....It's not something that will suddenly flip.

 

[Pickman's model]

Another sign of the end times

 

[Pickman's model]

I thought it took a long time for the actual shift to happen? Over 150 years....It's not something that will suddenly flip.

Yeh they said the same thing about mps and their houses

 

[Yossarian]

"In Soviet Russia, north pole navigates by you!"

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[ferrelhadley]

The Laschamp event was a short reversal of the Earth's magnetic field. It occurred 41,400 (±2,000) years ago during the last ice age and was first recognised in the late 1960s as a geomagnetic reversal recorded in the Laschamp lava flows in the Clermont-Ferrand district of France.[1] The magnetic excursion has since been demonstrated in geological archives from many parts of the world. The period of reversed magnetic field was approximately 440 years, with the transition from the normal field lasting approximately 250 years. The reversed field was 75% weaker, whereas the strength dropped to only 5% of the current strength during the transition. This reduction in geomagnetic field strength resulted in more cosmic rays reaching the Earth, causing greater production of the cosmogenic isotopes beryllium 10 and carbon 14.[2] The Laschamp event was the first known geomagnetic excursion and remains the most thoroughly studied among the known geomagnetic excursions.[3]

Laschamp event - Wikipedia

Geomagnetic excursion - Wikipedia

This will not affect non ionising radiation rates coming into to Earth, only ionising. Those will largely be trapped by molecules in the upper atmosphere that will filter down to the lower atmosphere. There is a weak but plausable link to increased cloud formation due to nucleation.
Role of sulphuric acid, ammonia and galactic cosmic rays in atmospheric aerosol nucleation | Nature
But over all little to be overly concerned about so far as I can see.
Others may have more information that undermines what I have said.

 

[8ball]

We’re overdue a reversal of poles as it is.

 

[8ball]

I thought it took a long time for the actual shift to happen? Over 150 years....It's not something that will suddenly flip.

Geologically speaking, that is very sudden!

 

[keybored]

So sad I feel for the younger generation this looks really bad

And when you tell them "I remember when it was all magnetic fields there", they won't believe it.

 

[souljacker]

Another thing to blame the Poles for. Farage won't be happy.

 

[2hats]

Interesting to note that the early WMM update will have to be propagated out to smartphone OSes (ie it is a part of the Android codebase) in a system update if the built-in Hall effect magnetometer outputs are still to be (reasonably) accurately related to compass directions.

 

[8ball]

You is one crazy dude.

 

[MikeMcc]

The old adage of 'Mag to Grid, get rid' is out of the window in a fair part of the UK now. Mag North was traditionally to the west but is going east. For users of normal compasses (such as Silvas) the difference is well below the resolution of the compass and is pretty much ineffectual at the moment.

 

[twentythreedom]

Interesting to note that the early WMM update will have to be propagated out to smartphone OSes (ie it is a part of the Android codebase) in a system update if the built-in Hall effect magnetometer outputs are still to be (reasonably) accurately related to compass directions.

SCIENCE