The Magnetic North Pole can move up to 80kms A DAY

reply to post by zorgon


Ahhh.. Deutsch... die schönste Sprach der Welt! Unfortunately, I've never been there so my German is ...well, almost as bad as the average ATS users' English, probably (kidding!). Brushed up on it a few years back to read Das Parfum and Der Steppenwolf--worth every minute! Erm... anyway, yeah, it turns out the original word I was thinking of in my native language was just as poor a choice as "pattern". I think I may have a blind spot on the old gray matter but I hope I've gotten my point across.

Eh?

This page has a bunch of great information on this topic. Graphs, photos, etc

Alberta Classic.net : Magnetic North

The position of the Magnetic North Pole
A pole position was [next] determined by Canadian government scientists shortly after World War II. Paul Serson and Jack Clark, of the Dominion Observatory, measured a dip of 89° 56' at Allen Lake on Prince of Wales Island. This, in conjunction with other observations made in the vicinity, showed that the pole had moved some 250 km northwest since the time of Amundsen's observations. Subsequent observations by Canadian government scientists in 1962, 1973, 1984, and most recently in 1994, showed that the general northwesterly motion of the pole is continuing, and that during this century it has moved on average 10 km per year .

Why is the Pole Moving?
If, as Gilbert believed, the Earth acts as a large magnet, the pole would not move, at least not as rapidly as it does. We now know that the cause of the Earth's magnetic field is much more complex. We believe that it is produced by electrical currents that originate in the hot, liquid, outer core of the Earth. As a simple analogy, consider an electromagnet, in which we can produce a strong magnetic field by passing an electric current through a coil of wire. In nature, processes are seldom simple. The flow of electric currents in the core is continually changing, so the magnetic field produced by those currents also changes. This means that at the surface of the Earth, both the strength and direction of the magnetic field will vary over the years. This gradual change is called the secular variation of the magnetic field. The position of the North Magnetic Pole is strongly influenced by the secular variation in its vicinity. For example, if the dip is 90° at a given point this year, that point will be the North Magnetic Pole, by definition. However, because of secular variation, the dip at that point will change to 89°58' in about two years, so it will no longer be the pole. However, at some nearby point, the dip will have increased to 90°, and that point will have become the pole. In this manner, the pole slowly moves across the Arctic. The more rapid daily motion of the pole around its average position has an entirely different cause. If we measure the Earth's magnetic field continually, such as is done at a magnetic observatory, we will see that it changes during the course of a day, sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly. The ultimate cause of these fluctuations is the Sun. The Sun constantly emits charged particles that, on encountering the Earth's magnetic field, cause electric currents to be produced in the upper atmosphere. These electric currents disturb the magnetic field, resulting in a temporary shift in the pole's position. The distance and speed of these displacements will, of course, depend on the nature of the disturbances in the magnetic field, but they are occurring constantly. When scientists try to determine the average position of the pole, they must average out all of these transient wanderings."

I cant start a new topic as yet but I came across this today regarding the pole shift and thought Id share it in here. It could effect humans too.

Magnetic pole shift releasing poisonous gas into atmosphere

reply to post by Paulos


From that article:

The Earth's magnetic field "flips" (or reverses polarity) every few thousand years.

That's just demonstrably false and doesn't bode well for your source there.

Edit: Yup, and the rest of the article is nonsense, too. What did you find so interesting in there, Paulos?

From 1831-1904 (73 years) it moved approx 90 miles at a rate of 1.24 Mile Per Year
From 1904-1948 (44 years) it moved approx 205 miles at a rate of 4.66 MPY
From 1948-1962 (14 years) it moved approx 90 miles at a rate of 6.42 MPY
From 1962-1973 (11 years) it moved approx 80 miles at a rate of 7.27 MPY
From 1973-1984 (11 years) it moved approx 75 miles at a rate of 6.82 MPY
From 1984-1994 (10 years) it moved approx 80 miles at a rate of 8.00 MPY
From 1994-2001 (7 years) it moved approx 220 miles at a rate of 31.43 MPY
From 2001-2004 (3 years) it moved approx 75 miles at a rate of 25.00 MPY
From 2004-2005 (1 year) it moved approx 30 miles at a rate of 30.00 MPY
From 2005-2010 (5 years) it moved approx 210 miles at a rate of 42.00 MPY

Clearly we see a trend of increasing rate. We are currently experiencing the fastest magnetic pole movement in at least the last 420 years.

I compiled this data by using the images shown and adding them to my already existing plot shown earlier in this thread, and the data from that was used from wiki and plotting them on Google earth. Creating a path and measuring each segment. I give the error of the each individual segment at about +/- 5 miles... the resulting effect on the Miles Per Year would be negligable and would still show an ever increasing rate of movement.

Oh, for the love of... OK, no-one is arguing that the poles aren't wandering.

No one.

What do the last 420 years have to do with anything, besides making me need to roll one? I have stuff to do today, dang it! Once again, the last geomagnetic reversal was 780000 years ago, are you really not realizing how insignificant a timeframe these measly 420 years are??? We might as well go after how much the poles wandered this week, or before noon today. It just does not matter.

Originally posted by AllSeeingI
From 1831-1904 (73 years) it moved approx 90 miles at a rate of 1.24 Mile Per Year
From 1904-1948 (44 years) it moved approx 205 miles at a rate of 4.66 MPY
From 1948-1962 (14 years) it moved approx 90 miles at a rate of 6.42 MPY
From 1962-1973 (11 years) it moved approx 80 miles at a rate of 7.27 MPY
From 1973-1984 (11 years) it moved approx 75 miles at a rate of 6.82 MPY
From 1984-1994 (10 years) it moved approx 80 miles at a rate of 8.00 MPY
From 1994-2001 (7 years) it moved approx 220 miles at a rate of 31.43 MPY
From 2001-2004 (3 years) it moved approx 75 miles at a rate of 25.00 MPY
From 2004-2005 (1 year) it moved approx 30 miles at a rate of 30.00 MPY
From 2005-2010 (5 years) it moved approx 210 miles at a rate of 42.00 MPY

Clearly we see a trend of increasing rate. We are currently experiencing the fastest magnetic pole movement in at least the last 420 years.

I compiled this data by using the images shown and adding them to my already existing plot shown earlier in this thread, and the data from that was used from wiki and plotting them on Google earth. Creating a path and measuring each segment. I give the error of the each individual segment at about +/- 5 miles... the resulting effect on the Miles Per Year would be negligable and would still show an ever increasing rate of movement.

edit on (1/13/11) by AllSeeingI because: clarification

Might be interesting to correlate the movement with the solar stuff that has been happening (Sorry, I know next to nothing about solar or magnetic activity but I have noticed people associating the two)

Originally posted by TedStevensLives
Oh, for the love of... OK, no-one is arguing that the poles aren't wandering.

No one.

What do the last 420 years have to do with anything, besides making me need to roll one? I have stuff to do today, dang it! Once again, the last geomagnetic reversal was 780000 years ago, are you really not realizing how insignificant a timeframe these measly 420 years are??? We might as well go after how much the poles wandered this week, or before noon today. It just does not matter.

The trend for the last 10 years is an acceleration over the previous 420 years we are aware of..
Not time for doom and gloom but certainly worth noting and watching..Agreed.??

Worth noting and watching, absolutely. I've been watching all my life and I'm absolutely fascinated with geomagnetism and magnetism in general. All I'm trying to get across here is the absurdity of over-emphasizing what is, really, insignificant in every sense of the word. And I still haven't received any answers as to how the magnetic poles are supposed to wreak such havoc on Earth even if they were to reverse in the next 100000 years?

Even just calling the last 10 years a trend kinda rubs me the wrong way--we are talking about a process that takes tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of years to complete, and it is utterly, completely random. Trying to read something out of 10 years, 50 years or 1000 years is about as productive as trying to decipher some deeper meaning from the shizophasic ramblings of a lunatic.

Please note that have no trouble with people having differing opinions to mine; it's just that I hate seeing passionate people having passionate debates based on misunderstandings and it really doesn't seem like everyone is grasping the content at hand.

And for the love of sobriety, stop saying 420! Please!