North Magnetic Pole Racing Toward Siberia 187
RogerRoast sends along a backgrounder from Scientific American on the best current theory as to why the north magnetic pole drifts. "The NMP, also known as the dip pole, is the point on Earth where the planet's magnetic field points straight down into the ground. Scottish explorer James Clark Ross first located the NMP in 1831 on the Boothia Peninsula in what is now northern Canada... [T]he NMP drifts from year to year as geophysical processes within Earth change. For more than 150 years after Ross's measurement its movement was gradual, generally less than 15 kilometers per year. But then, in the 1990s, it picked up speed, ... bolting north–northwest into the Arctic Ocean at more than 55 kilometers per year. If it keeps going it could pass the geographic north pole in a decade or so and carry on toward Siberia."
Eeep! (Score:5, Funny)
Will Putin's ambitions stop at nothing?
(Besides, a fast-moving magnetic pole screws up the UK's Ordinance Survey maps, which are magnetic north aligned.)
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too late, we in the USA have already decided we're going to regime-change the pole. It's on the planetary Axis of Evil along with the South Pole and the Earth's Center!
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that's what his job description said, but he rarely actually showed up for duty. Just as well, what with his brain being addled with cocaine and booze abuse.
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usgs maps show the deviation as of a particular date, and an indication of the amount to add/subtract for each year after that. so the user will have to do a bit more arithmetic - "x degrees per year through 200x, y degrees per year after that" will probably do reasonably well.
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a fast-moving magnetic pole screws up the UK's Ordinance Survey maps, which are magnetic north aligned.)
This sounds really dumb, The British pretty much wrote the book on geodesy.
Re:Eeep! (Score:5, Informative)
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(Besides, a fast-moving magnetic pole screws up the UK's Ordinance Survey maps, which are magnetic north aligned.)
Would that be survey maps of local laws, or survey maps whose creation is mandated by law?
Re:Eeep! (Score:5, Insightful)
The funny thing is.... No one knows if this speed-up is a natural cycle, or if there's really something out of whack with the core.
There being no artificial means of altering the magnetic field of the entire planet, you can rest assured that the speed up is a natural occurrence. /smirk
As for it being part of a cycle, magnetic pole wandering, and indeed complete reversals, while documented in geology, follow no easily discernible pattern over time, with long periods of stability followed by many reversals over a short period.
There are some claim the pattern is a Lévy distribution, but this has yet to be proven, and that fact by itself provides no predictive capabilities.
There is a pretty good wiki article on this. [wikipedia.org] The article includes a time-chart showing reversals of the magnetic field. There are very long periods of stability, as well as periods of frequent short reversals.
Magnetic Pole reversals happen over a period of time of tens of thousands of years, and a reversal is proceeded by a diminishing of field strength, not necessarily by pole wandering. The current rate of field strength weakening suggests a reversal sometime in the years 3000-4000.
So the speed up of the NMP's movement is not significant in estimating a reversal, and a reversal does not signify anything out of "whack" with the core of the earth.
It is a perfectly natural thing that has occurred many many many times. And yes, mankind has lived thru reversals entirely unaware.
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iirc recent evidence has shown that it is (often?) preceded by mini-poles appearing in many places, and sometimes the shift may have happened in a few decades.
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imteresting - i never thought of it in those terms. It makes more sense now. thx!
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"And yes, mankind has lived thru reversals entirely unaware." Only if you really stretch the definition of mankind.
The last reversal occured 780,000 years ago.
Homo heidelbergensis, the direct ancestor of both Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens lived about 600,000 years ago.
If you're willing to call the pre-Neanderthal population of genus Homo the "mankind", then yes, it lived through the reversals.
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They're close enough to human to become lawyers.
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As for protection against cosmic radiation and solar wind, yes, they did.
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Speed of wandering over pre-historic time can only be measured by localized deposits of volcanic rock that was magnetized as it hardened. This can leave layers after repeated eruptions that are magnetized in different orientations.
After some 400 years of relative stability, (see: http://www.tgo.uit.no/articl/magnorpe.gif [tgo.uit.no] ), the North Magnetic Pole, previously wandering in a localized area, has moved nearly 1,100 kilometers out into the Arctic Ocean (in roughly a straight line) during the last century.
There
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Doh! voice recognition failure alert! ;)
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I suggest using the Scootish Broch design rather than Motte-and-Baily. The latter is arguably better for defense but isn't nearly as impressive.
Our molten core is shifting (Score:4, Funny)
The probable cause of this is a sudden shift in the tilt of our molten core. This would realign our magnetic poles.
But it may also be indicative of a bigger problem. There was a film a few years back which explored the possibility of a sudden loss of angular momentum within the Earth's core. Without the spinning core, the magnetic field would be lost and our planet would lose the protection afforded to us by the magnetosphere. Essentially, we would become windswept by the solar wind and would end up without an atmosphere, much like Mars.
The solution, the scientists in the film agreed, was to prepare several nuclear bombs which could be transported to the edge of the core (below the mantle) and detonated, thus restarting the spinning core. It seemed like a crazy theory, but with this sudden acceleration of the NMP, I think it might be wise to keep an eye on all of our options.
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I bet the core is shifting because of the popularity of neodymium magnets.
Damn kids buying them on the internet and shifting the balance.
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Essentially, we would become windswept by the solar wind and would end up without an atmosphere, much like Mars.
I don't get it, could you rephrase that as a worse analogy?
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It will be like when you forget to wax your nice sportscar, and the elements strip off the nice red shine.
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It's about 3 football fields of uninhabitability
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I had to look at your handle before I got that you were joking. :)
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Luckily the core is pretty absurdly massive. It's not going to suddenly lose all of it's kinetic energy without dumping it somewhere, a process which undoubtedly would be pretty impressive and noticeable.
Also, that movie was terrible. ;) (and not just for it's absurd physics, because Sunshine (with an even more absurd premise) was actually pretty good)
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Nuclear bombs, detonated in the Earth's core. Seems rather Wile E. Coyote-ish. What could possibly go wrong?
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Sounds fantastic... anybody have back-of-the-napkin numbers as to how much energy it might take to restart the core spinning? I'm surprised that only a few nukes would do it.
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The biggest problem is if the molten core shifts around, then the localized heat sources change, which changes the temperature of the ground surface, the oceans, and the atmosphere given enough time. This would eventually lead to civilization-annoying weather pattern changes, causing regular cycling climates (hot summer, cold snowy winter) to become either more extreme (hotter summer, colder winter) or tilted (hotter summer, winters that are cold and rainy). This of course distorts any functioning agraria
Re:Our molten core is shifting (Score:4, Insightful)
Climate shifts are due to the shifting magnetic properties of the earth's core?
~*SWEEEET!*~
Thanks for giving me my latest skeptical counter-theory to anthropogenic global warming!
Re:Our molten core is shifting (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you need to go back and study a little more science.
First rule of science: go where the data leads you. When we learn more about the way our universe works, we update our thoughts about the way the universe works.
Second Rule of science: Investigate the sources of reports. If the main source is not a scientist in the field of study, and/or it was paid for by a notoriously insane group that is not respected by the scientific community at large, do not trust. PETA is one such group. They just want people to not kill animals. They don't really care why you don't kill animals, they just want you to not kill animals. So, they try to provide as many reasons why you shouldn't as possible. If you presented them with a "study" that showed them that raising animals to be killed caused the earthquake in Haiti, they would probably post it on their website.
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Second Rule of science: Investigate the sources of reports. If the main source is not a scientist in the field of study, and/or it was paid for by a notoriously insane group that is not respected by the scientific community at large, do not trust.
Sorry, but that has never been a "rule of science".
Theories stand or fall on their own merit. Science does not care about sources.
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Sorry, but that has never been a "rule of science".
Theories stand or fall on their own merit. Science does not care about sources.
That's a nice "theory" (in a different sense to how you've used the word) but as it's done in practice, that's not at all how science works. Hypotheses from people inside the field tend to get totally different profiles of scrutiny to those from people outside. In particular, proposals from outsiders tend to be checked for howlers — things that have been proved false ages ago — first, whereas proposals from insiders get checked for subtle things first as it's assumed that their proponents know t
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It is a pretty well known fact that animals (including people) are one of the major contributors to ghg emissions. It doesn't matter whether they are farmed or not. Farts is farts.
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First, I was saying that science does change its mind according to the facts, rather than changing its facts according to what it wants to be true.
Second, it was just odd and bad practice that it was linked through PETA. Its like linking to a story written by written by crack heads for the legalization of crack and puppies.
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I'm not sure I necessarily agree with anything, other than the scientific method, and the non-trustworthiness of PETA.
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The biggest problem is if the molten core shifts around, then the localized heat sources change, which changes the temperature of the ground surface, the oceans, and the atmosphere given enough time. This would eventually lead to civilization-annoying weather pattern changes, causing regular cycling climates (hot summer, cold snowy winter) to become either more extreme (hotter summer, colder winter) or tilted (hotter summer, winters that are cold and rainy). This of course distorts any functioning agrarian society while the whole disaster continues; things have to be moved around after the weather settles down again.
Actually, geothermal energy at the surface of the earth is pretty negligible. Nearly all (99% +) thermal energy at the surface of the earth is due to solar radiation; it is unlikely that a lack of geothermal energy would have much of a direct impact on climate, although the end of all volcanic activity and specifically associated off-gassing would have a very significant effect.
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Was that the made-for-SciFi-channel movie featuring Wil Wheaton as one of the scientists? I tuned in about halfway through and hadn't yet absorbed enough plotyons for it to keep my attention, so I never saw the end.
But in terms of science and plausibility, I found the Mongolian Death Worm movie to be much more realistic.
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build the shield from the movie with the aliens fo (Score:2)
build the shield from the movie with the aliens form zeist.
Yes the movie is so bad I had to hide the name of it.
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No no no, are you crazy?
Think of it this way. The planet's shields are effectively down. All we need to do is fill a photon torpedo with tachyons and launch it into the core so it reverses the core's polarity. That will fix everything.
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The probable cause of this is a sudden shift in the tilt of our molten core. This would realign our magnetic poles.
This is what happens when you get all of your "scientific knowledge" from movies people.
Stay in school.
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Considering the number of underground nuclear test explosions that have occurred I'm not all that concerned about it.
World stability (Score:5, Funny)
Re:World stability (Score:4, Informative)
Everyone knows that you regain stability by moving all your poles into the right hand plane.
Only if the positive portion of the plane is on the left side. In Australia, perhaps?
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Actually, putting your poles on the right half of the s-plane gives you instability :)
(Reference [stanford.edu])
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Maybe we should just put them on the jw axis, let it oscillate, and call it good.
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Hmm... that would make compasses more entertaining than they are now!
Grid North to Magnetic North (Score:3)
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On military tactical maps, there's a diagram for converting from grid North (straight up using MGRS maps) to magnetic north (where the needle points on a compass). It'll say add or subtract some number of degrees to convert from one to the other, and each map is different depending on where in the world it is depicting. Since many of these maps are several years old, I wonder what impact this will have on ground navigation?
Probably little... for those applications where using the magnetic north pole is good enough, that'll likely stay the case if the pole shifts a bit. For applications where higher accuracy is needed, other systems like GPS would be used.
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Most of the maps that need that kind of accuracy are on a yearly update cycle anyway - for example aviation maps which also have the magnetic/geographic conversion numbers on them. I guess the military cartographers are very well aware of the problem and update accordingly. The drift within one year or whatever the upgrade cycle is shouldn't matter much.
Most maps and charts that show magnetic declination also include an approximate calculation to keep it more-or-less updated. In addition to the declination at the time the chart is made it will include an approximate direction and rate of annual change, something like 15.7 degrees west, moving east at 0.3 degrees per year.
Not super accurate, but enough for nearly all purposes to keep it up to date between map updates.
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I submit that: unless you are using surveying equipment or a theodolite, your measurement error, hasty reckoning, even your metal belt buckle, will probably have more effect than the shift in the location of magnetic north.
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Aviation maps (sectional charts) expire after just a few months. I expect military maps have a similar lifetime. You wouldn't want to execute an attack only to find someone's unexpectedly dug a new drainage ditch through the middle of their fields.
The new maps would have the current values for magnetic declination.
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The military (US) maps I'm familiar with also indicate the rate of drift for magnetic north, so if you really need that accuracy (something we did in some cases for laying artillery firing batteries in the Olden Days without GPS and intertial nav systems...) you'd check the date of the map, calculate the current drift, and apply that corrected correction.
So if rate of change is accelerating (2nd derivative), that makes the calculation a lot more interesting.
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ROTC mid '70s, active duty '78-'82, in the National Guard to about '94. Field Artillery Officer Basic was one of the few Officer courses you could flunk out of at that time with 2 segments you had to pass, Map Reading and Observed Fires.
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As I recall (they're up in the cabin now, and unfortunately I'm not) the old maps we have of Lake of the Woods have a magnetic declination rose tilted slightly from the main true-north-facing rose. In the magnetic rose is a note that says something like "1978 values, changing at 7 minutes east per year."
I remember being fascinated at the fact that the drift was predictable enough to publish. But would I trust that I could still take the map out now, multiply the value by 32 and it'd still be accurate? Th
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Maritime and Aeronautic charts have the same correction scales to convert from map North (always at the top and aligned with Longitude) to magnetic North. These charts are re-issued (and the correction scales as well as other things updated) on a regular basis (and I suspect military tactical maps are as well), so age of the map will be less of an issue than you might think.
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Tripe (Score:1)
From 2009 [slashdot.org] (almost the one year anniversary) and 2005 [slashdot.org].
dip pole dipole magnetic pole north pole pole pole (Score:2)
So... now we should be concerned because the magnetic pole is "rapidly" heading towards the geographic pole? Oh noes!
It is somewhat interesting that it is moving around pretty quickly, but it would be much more interesting if the magnetic pole was headed south instead; a little geomagnetic excursion from time to time is a healthy thing, don't you think?
On the plus side, the declination printed on all those USGS sectionals should be getting more accurate again...
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... now we should be concerned because the magnetic pole is "rapidly" heading towards the geographic pole?
Yes, because the magnetic pole being in Canada was one of the last interesting things about the country. What will they have left?
Alternative solution (Score:5, Funny)
How about we just stick a GIANT MAGNET right smack on the real North Pole? That way, we don't need to worry about the "natural" pole shifting. Set this artificial magnet to have a different frequency than the earth's natural magnetism, so we can set our compass magnets to that same frequency and not worry about interference. (This will also keep this valuable asset from wandering into Russian territory.)
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This would make an excellent in class calculation for a Geophysics lecture. Just how big a set neodymium magnets (one north, one south) would it take to override the earth's magnetic field? If installed, would the core actually align with it? How bad would it be if you installed them backwards?
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This would make an excellent in class calculation for a Geophysics lecture. Just how big a set neodymium magnets (one north, one south) would it take to override the earth's magnetic field? If installed, would the core actually align with it? How bad would it be if you installed them backwards?
Quick... someone find not just ONE magnetic monopole, but two!
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D) if you did manage to do it in the "opposite" sense, it wouldn't be a big deal because magnetic polarity switches have happened hundreds of times in Earth history and there is no correlation to extinctions or much of anything else.
Although it does correlate rather strongly to Boy Scout troops going missing and aeroplanes circling aimlessly over the Atlantic ocean.
Of course, there's no evidence that homo heidelbergensis had either of those, so they may not have been overly inconvenienced.
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Just keep it away from Hens.
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I can't decide if this guy is trying to be funny, or if he's a member of Insane Clown Posse.
It's actually the south magnetical pole. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's actually the south magnetical pole. (Score:4, Insightful)
You’re confusing the issue unnecessarily, and you’re incorrect. The “North Magnetic Pole” is the one geographically near to the North Pole, although it is magnetically a south pole.
Well... (Score:3, Informative)
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Is the magnetic south pole *exactly* opposite of the north magnetic pole?
Not according to Wikipedia (citation needed).
Do they move in tandem?
Sort of.
In modern Russia... (Score:2)
In Soviet Russia . . . (Score:2)
In Soviet Russia ... (Score:2)
... north pole moves you to Siberia!
We need a new treaty (Score:4, Interesting)
Magratheans running Beta software? (Score:2)
Slartibartfast needs to fix this. This is what happens when you use untested software.
YOU Know the Cause (Score:4, Funny)
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Well, there is a guy who claims that the weather trends we are experiencing is due to some convoluted connection to the effect of the sun's magnetic force interacting with the Earth's magnetic field. And he does have something to say about it's connection with AGW. [hulu.com]
Is this a good thing or a bad thing or neutral? (Score:2, Funny)
If it's a good thing or neutral, it's just a natural process.
If it's a bad thing then we did it. We need government action and trillions of dollars sent to third-world countries in order to stop it. How that's supposed to stop it, I don't know. Maybe the mass of all those dollar bills in the Southern hemisphere will cause the core to realign itself.
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For now it's good-to-neutral, magnetic north becoming actual north.
But it may become rapidly unpleasant if it continues. Due to layout of magnetic lines, the magnetosphere doesn't protect the magnetic poles from solar wind, except the unprotected "pits" are perpendicular to it, so no harm done. But if the magnetic poles move closer to the tropics, aiming towards the Sun, some inhabited areas can become dangerously exposed to cosmic rays.
Natural or not, it would definitely mean trouble for these areas, and t
More like how global warming (Score:2)
Regardless of scientific merit is being used as a vehicle to funnel money to various political pet causes.
Furlongs per Fortnight (Score:2)
55 km per year = 10.5 furlongs per fortnight
Epoch (Score:2)
No wonder the economy sucks (Score:2)
Santa's having to spend all of his energy moving his workshop whenever the North Pole shifts. This screws up Christmas gift giving, which is a major economic driver.
Somehow this is all Bush's fault - and like everything else Obama's just putting Bush's policies on steroids...
Moving away from the north pole (Score:2)
... sounds like it is moving SOUTH to me, not north by northwest.
Story tags (Score:2)
Magnetic Poles: (Score:2)
Supermodels Anja Rubik and Joanna Krupa.
They're very attractive!
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It depends (Score:2)
Government airport that can just lay more on the taxpayers to fund it?
Or private airport that has to stick to a budget?