(Very Important Question) If the earth's axsis were to readjust...

I was recently reading a new post regarding an ice shift recently at polar ice caps; scientists thinking that the earth's axises could indeed shift. This thought has spurred a very important question that I need answered..

If the earth's crust were to shift due to global melting -- what would happen to communication?!! I really wasn't worried about the whole 'shift' idea, until I considered the fact that satellites currently in orbit remain in their original gravitational orbit even though the crust would shift! If the shift was sudden, we would instantly be blind, due do our inability to communicate with ALL of our satellites! There would be no way for us to know the coordinates our satellites. A sudden shift would almost instantly cause a mass communication blackout; from GPS to even telephone in some cases! All form of broadcasting would be gone in an instant, aside from what is directly routed to your house within your broadcasting region. I've been smoking a little tonight, so excuse the grammar-- but does anyone get what I'm saying? Wouldn't this be --- terrible?!

I tried looking this up online, but could find nothing about this.

Anyone care to shed some light on the topic for me?

I wonder if landlines could be affected too, I guess maybe if there were earthquakes or mass floods.

These will be very interesting times if it occurs.

I suspect the only way there can be a pole shift is if an planetary body or brown dwarf nears Earth, and affects the gravity in such a way that Earth freezes in place for perhaps days, maybe weeks?

It's hard to imagine such cataclysms happening simply from a pole shift, but if the Earth really is that dynamic then we're in trouble, some more than others.

Maybe the only way we will know something is nearing is when sunset and sunup start occurring at the 'wrong' times.

Maybe it'll happen too quickly to notice

You know, I had never thought of that.
I wonder how long it would take them to reprogram.

Exactly. Not many people have. As background, my degree was in Telecommunications and from what I understand the implications of this are huge! This is a massive national security risk and possibily could cripple the world for months!

Satellites provide essential services to citizens:

Satellite broadcasting, both radio and television, including high-definition TV

Internet access all over the world, whether on mountains, islands or in villages

Broadband connectivity to enable access to public services such as e-Health, e-Education and e-Government, both in the developed and developing world

Mobile connectivity for ships at sea and planes in flight where other wireless servicescannot reach

Weather forecasting

Global positioning and navigation systems for land, sea and air transportation

Earth monitoring including early warning for natural hazards and environmental threats

Emergency communications and disaster preparedness

io9.com... -now Ten most Important Satellites Orbiting Now

First, two caveats: most of these satellites are representative of an entire class of satellites. There may be others that serve similar functions, but the satellites listed are exemplars. Also, the list is obviously U.S.-centric. If you live in Europe or Asia, there are likely different satellites that fill the roles of these all-star orbiters.

Hubble Space Telescope - By taking thousands of breathtaking photos unhindered by the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere, the Hubble has brought the beauty and mystery of space to more people than any other observatory, not to mention the massive amount of scientific research accomplished with it.

GOES-12 - From its high-altitude geosynchronous orbit, GOES-12 keeps a constant watch on weather conditions in most of North America.

The Moon - Tides, werewolves, the Apollo Program: without our natural satellite, we'd have none of these things.

KH-13 - This U.S. spy satellite is so secret, even the name is probably wrong (the government started giving them random names after people caught onto to the KH numbering system). Who knows what black budget, cutting edge satellite intelligence gathering devices are capable of these days?

GPS IIR11 - The U.S. government's NAVSTAR program brought global positioning abilities first to the military, then to the general public. It takes a constellation of these things for the system to work, so IIR11 is just one cog among many. Without it, there'd be no geocaching!

GoldenEye - With the ability to fire an EM pulse that could have wiped out an entire nation's financial records, GoldenEye is typical of fictional satellites and representative of our fears of orbiting weapons.

International Space Station - It's a symbol of international cooperation and a frontier outpost in the quest to colonize space. The low orbit maintained by the ISS makes it one of the easiest satellites to spot with the naked eye.

NOAA 17 - Unlike the GOES satellites, the NOAA satellites have asynchronous orbits, spinning around the globe to spot developing weather patterns that affect billions of people.

LANDSAT 7 - NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey teamed up in the 1970s to create a catalogue of Earth images shot from space. Since then, not only has the data improved with huge advances in digital photography, but numerous companies (including Google) have licensed the images for their mapping software.

They should set the satellites to operate more like a mesh network so that they know where they are in relation to eachother. That way in an event like this only one satellite would have to have it's orientation with Earth re-calibrated and the rest would fall in line.


Peace

[edit on 6-2-2009 by TheRealDonPedros]

I always thought of it this way....

the galactic magnetic/gravitational "DISC" this condnsed area stemming out from our milky way's central black hole... is like.. paper thin but incredibly powerfull.. and as we follow the milky way around the edge we bob up and down in a sine wave... through it...

so as we'll be going straight through it at the very end of 2012 - early 2013 ...

try to imagine it this way...

like a huge disc shaped paper thin magnet... which has no "poles" which is what keeps our magnetic field in the orientation it is ... one of our poles always facing it and one always facing away

then as it passes by it.. through it.. slowly.. then increasingly quicker and quicker.. as we pass through the exact center .. it's completely flipped... then gradually tapers off it's movement till it settles in the exact opposite orientation.. and affecting our sun and all the other planets..

but then add to that a passing object that has an incredibly magnificent gravitational and magnetic field. that would be a sort of opposing force.. to kind of "steer" and balance out this change as to be a secondary factor to make it more gradual and controlled..

so as we pass through the plane.. this passing object actually helps to stabilize the shift so that it's not some horrific slap in the face that destroys the entire planet.. but merely .. through clockwork.. ORCHESTRATED and intentionally implemented... shifts the continental plates into a very different orientation...

say... poles forming in Japan and Brazil... and Greenland and Antarctica becoming thawed... a place to "start a new world in".. with green technology and strict and JUST governing.

a place where people can enjoy life.. and set base camp at.. and take trips out to the rest of the world for "reconstruction trips".. to help disaster areas recoup and reuild according to this new "clean slate" standard of green tech and infrastructure..

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