Where does your compass show?

The coordinates of the northern magnetic pole shift by 40 kilometers a year the speed of moving magnetic poles in the last century has seriously increased compared to the previous four centuries and now reaches 40 km per year. A message about this, made last Thursday at a meeting of the American geophysical union by scientists from the University of Oregon, strengthened the fears of geophysicists, that the Earth approaches the stage when the North and South Pole should change places. However, the geophysicists from Oregon hope that the pole can still return to the place.

The magnetic poles of the Earth are points on the surface of our planet, in which the vector of the induction of the magnetic field created by the rotation of the iron -nuclear core is directed vertically - down at the North Pole and upwards. The magnetic pole does not coincide with the geographical pole.

The magnetic field protects life on Earth from harmful cosmic radiation. People also learned to navigate it in space, having come up with a compass.

The coordinates of the northern magnetic pole were first determined in 1831. Then he was in the area of William Island in the Canadian Arctic territory. In 1904, when the coordinates of the pole were again checked, it turned out that it moved 50 km. And in the summer of this year, the geomagnetic laboratory of the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources announced that the Earth’s magnetic pole left the country and would be in Siberia after 50 years.

Scientists say that movements, in a scientific excursions, poles are constantly happening. The fault of this is the uneven rotation of the inner core of our planet. From time to time, gigantic twisting forms in it, capable of making the flows of molten iron change the direction of their movement. Over the past 150 years, the pole overcame 1100 km, and now its exact coordinates are 82.7 degrees of northern latitude and 114.4 degrees of Western longitude.

According to the observations of scientists over the past 25 years, the driving drift has significantly accelerated. No one can say for sure how he will behave further - change the direction of movement, slow down or stop running at all.

“This movement of the magnetic pole may be the result of normal oscillation, and ultimately it shifts back to Canada,” Joseph Stonener, a Magnetism from the University of Oregon, reassures the public. He studied sedimentary deposits of the Arctic lakes for many years, since information about the Earth’s magnetic field remains in these deposits. The steron says that over the past thousand years, the magnetic pole moved over significant distances from Canada to Siberia and vice versa, but sometimes in other directions.

The movement of the magnetic pole does not threaten any global cataclysms. A noticeable consequence of its movement to the territory of Russia may be that in half a century the northern lights will disappear in Alaska and will become a frequent occurrence in Southern Siberia and Europe. However, the excursion can bring down the work of navigation equipment. Perhaps climatic anomalies will arise. It is much worse if the excursion continues: this can lead to the fact that the northern and southern magnetic poles will change places.

“Today, many signs indicate that there is another change in polarity. We are already observing the drop in the tension of the magnetic field, ”Professor Larry Newit, a member of the Canadian Geological Commission, warns. “So, over the past 22 years, it has decreased by an average of 1.7%, and in some regions, for example, in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, by 10%.”

The change of polarity is always preceded by the stage of significant weakening of the magnetic field with the emergence of many poles: this means that for five, or even ten thousand years, the planet will become defenseless before cosmic radiation. A change in polarity can disorient migrating birds and animals in which orientation is developed at the level of reflexes. Scientists are also waiting for serious problems in the technological field, since the change of directions of the magnetic field will affect the work of all devices.

According to Lids University scientists, the change of polarity occurs about once every 500 thousand years, and the last time the earth experienced such a disaster 780 thousand years ago. So the next change in the direction of the magnetic field of the planet has long come off.

12.12.2005 / Andrey Vetvinsky material published in the newspaper No. 236 dated 12/13/2005.