Compasses going crazy...Theories and Research

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Well.. This makes me want to go out and buy a compass...

Surprisingly some here are reporting the same thing as the OP. But some also reporting nothing wrong with theirs.... Interesting...

This means to me, that either people are some how reading their compass wrong... Or there is something going on.... and only some areas are affected.... I don't know...

Confusing... But interesting.

It looks to me, that there is a weaker new pole.
That has shown up in US.
And those that are closer to it, get larger differences than those far way.
And those who are really far away, gets the reading from the regular main north pole, because the new one is too weak to their compass to register that far away.

reply to post by NinzzMiniGoth


The iPhone has a gyro sensor in it that can act like a compass. So there is technically a real physical compass inside it that displays that information on the screen.
If anyone has every played the Gameboy Advance game called "WarioWare: Twisted!", you know exactly what I'm talking about.

A huge filament of magnetism and hot plasma blasted off the sun's southwestern limb on March 19th around 1200 UT

This is www.spaceweather.com....

Still.. are you sure guys, you actually have the correct readings? Electric wires can influence a lot a correct reading , so I was wondering if people having bad readings, could go outside or move a bit and test if the readings are consistent?

Edited to add one more photo:
stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov...

This is the last one provided by the Stereo satellite, maybe a "normal" anomaly ,however I guess it is interesting..

North East Ohio reporting

LOCATION: Lat: 41.72N, Lon: 81.25W

TIME : 1214 hrs

COMPASS DIRECTION: Pointing NORTH

COMPASS TYPE: Brunton. magnetic

All appears to be normal here

my iPod's compass is tweaking madly as well as pointing NE

Central colorado,,, compasses seems twenty degrees of to the east.

I think this are just very strange and strong fluctuations
to the earths magnetic field. The magnetic poles did mostly not
really move, but maybe something causes wild fluctuations in the
magnetic fieldlines, resulting in those wrong compass readings.

Originally posted by ikke24
I diddn't read the whole tread, only the first

completely bull#t

the noth is still the north and hasn't moved lately, atleast not noticeble enough for "normal" people with small compasses

so stop with making such a rediculous treads

people get scared

I'm in Indiana just to the North of Purdue University and the compass I have is reading North a little off... (almost 10 degrees to the East)

Oi..

This is only my second post after the mandatory first tell-all tell-some in the Introductions forum.What pushed me to write in here is exactly whats been worrying all my fellow mates on ATS..i had been on a weekend trip to a camping site with buddies and we were fiddling with the compasses on our android phones.Strangely enuff the pointer was displaying west when it should have been north.We could figure out the directions roughly following the trajectory of the suns setting path.
Nothing to panic about since we are all still firmly glued to the ground.


Im back home and the compass still refuses to set itself right..this is stranger cause when i first installed the app everything seemed perfect.

For monitoring changes, you must monitor compas in same place for 4-5 months. Here are photos from 13.02 and 20.03. North was aligned with lines on scale in december. Location - west coast of Black Sea, Europe.

img823.imageshack.us...

img268.imageshack.us...

reply to post by tomten


wasnt there an airport in Fla. that had to realign its run way approaches because of compass reading?

every place on earth shows a different or, off of true north, its called magnetic deviation,. on the west coast (to be exact Astoria Oregon) My ships compass is 18 degrees off north, which sounds like a lot.
when you have a compass installed on a boat (commercial) it has to be "swung" and you need to have a compass deviation sheet on file to show the coast gaurd.. What that does is tells you what degrees are true,
i wouldnt freek out and think all of the compass,s are out. call your local port or airport and ask them what the magnetic deviation is in your neck of the woods, Ive spent my life at sea or at least 27 years. Ever seen the compasss spin like a fan now that will freak you out lol. any metal within 2 meters of a compas can send it off. speakers in the house, evan electrical use can make a good compass show off. I have my compass reswung every 3 years. there is always a little flucuation in it. 1-2 degrees off from previous swings. i have maybe 5 diff compasses here, from cheap boy scout one, to a ww2 german artillary compass each one shows a tinny degree of deviation.

readings on gps and handheld here in new mexico have both stabilized.
altimeter is off by about 1500 feet.

my mind keep telling me this isn't regarding the actual magnetic north, but something man made.
any tests going on?
i read somewhere that when they crank up cern it affects these things.
any thoughts?

Originally posted by goochball
How many more of you have compasses? This should be interesting.

my compass works fine in seattle....

Originally posted by billxam
It sure doesn't look to me like this follows New Madrid at all. I put the approximate location of the fault on the map.

It's almost like it's something in the center of the U.S. that has a distinct range.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1ce0a56e1406.jpg[/atsimg]

edit on 20-3-2011 by billxam because: added map

edit on 20-3-2011 by billxam because: (no reason given)

I thought that these two images would help.

reply to post by Violater1


magma and volcanos are also known to play havoc with a compass, because of the large amounts of iron in the material. Also i know that coal can also for some reason. I remember draggin up a large pile of coal up from a ship wreck once, it did have a affect. on the ships compass by a little bit

I'm in England and our compass is reading as it usually does. North is north.

i think i might have the strangest outcome here

i had to make a compass (water, needle, cork) and im watching this thing point more at a south-southeast direction instead of going north like it should. even after i nudged the needle around and rotated the plate, it always rotated back towards the south

im located in NYC btw

Theres a little thing called, " True North & Magnetic North. Compasses are magnetic north so of course it not going to be where true north is. Google it.

reply to post by bluedog7


I will reply to my reply, so people know Im not trying to scare anyone. We have been hunting the same area for over 25 years. We go in at dark for dear season. we know our compass settings. We hunt one area for rabbit that we get turned around alot that is why we take the compasses in case of heavy snow. I am straight forward it is off about 15% degrees. Now there is google maps that have shown the slow movement of the magnetic pole. It had shifted quicker in the past few years. I believe after tampa closed its airports this winter it had moved 40 miles closer to Russia. Which would make sense from NE Ohio and the readings different. Im not sure if this latest earthquake has influenenced another shift. This will influence weather. It always does. People its easy to see. Weather will dominate our headlines, it has already, Major floods in the upper midwest again and major floods in the Northeast. California will be interesting with alot of snow this year and spring melt. The earth is ever changing.