Maps of the historical movements of the North and South Poles of Earth

submitted by magnora7 from earth.rice.edu

all 8 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]Vigte 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There's realistically only 3 (maybe 4) possible outcomes:

They reach the the "latitude of no return" (I think it's 40th?) and:

1) Speed up and completely flip,

2) "bounce" off the latitude and start going back, staying in their respective regions,

3) Stop at the latitude and slowly rotate around the latitude axis

Since we have NO clue what caused Earth's angular setting, it's entirely possible these changes are not normal and are residual effects of something that happened long ago (ie: a comet impact, solar flare destabilizing the core, etc). For instance - the Chinese myth of Nuwa and Gong Gong tells of a battle between gods, where one was thrown into a mountain, which caused the earth to tilt, created a huge flood and manifested the seasons. How is it ancient myth lines up with established understanding?

Arthur Koestler once said "myths, like crystals, grow according to their own recursive design - but both require a real basis".

The "mythical" fourth outcome would be something akin to them "dying"... not a good thing, but that would involve the solidification of the core and that just seems a bit... too far fetched, but it's still a logical possibility. (Some have even speculated the sun is far older than we are told - and that it itself could also be, dying.)

Out of the options, only #2 doesn't lead to a whole hell of a lot of problems (mainly regarding EM technology, GPS, probably animals (as they use magnetic fields to navigate, etc) (likely humans too)).

I've been watching this situation for a while now - there's a channel called "Mavstar Observatory" who has been assembling field monitors and shipping them around the world, to get a picture of what's happening.

[–]Chipit 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Good deal, I love this normie stuff. No politics. Keep it coming!

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is the stuff I like too. Interesting, while avoiding pointless drama that has been reported by 1000 other people already. If there was like 10 of us posting things like that, I think it would help a lot.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

North Pole is speeding up, south pole is slowing down. Seems odd they're not moving in tandem but I guess that's how it works

[–][deleted]  (6 children)

[deleted]

    [–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

    They are also not moving in opposite directions as one would expect. Both are going north.

    Ah true good observation.

    In addition to your questions, I wonder if man-made magnetic fields are influencing the direction of the earth's net magnetic field over time

    [–][deleted]  (3 children)

    [deleted]

      [–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

      Interesting points. It's not AC lines I'm worried about though, it's stuff like MRI machines with 6+ Tesla magnetic fields and superconducting research magnets that are even more powerful.

      To make a bar magnet, you put a magnetizing material under an even stronger magnet, and that causes everything to polarize in the same direction and thus have a large-scale magnetism.

      I wonder if the very strong magnets we use on the surface of the earth, creates small magnetic domains in the earth in the local area where it's happening. Enough of these magnetic domains will eventually affect the Earth's field as a whole, and the easiest way for Earth's magnetic field to change is to change orientation (as opposed to changing in strength).

      So it's possible we're causing the poles to move. I wonder if anyone is investigating this. Seems as least as plausible as anthropogenic climate change...

      [–][deleted]  (1 child)

      [deleted]

        [–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        Good points. I think an interesting measure too would be how homogeneous Earth's field is. There can be lots of conflicting magnetic domains pointing in opposing directions that cancel each other out. But if they all align facing the same way, the field becomes stronger. I imagine this happens sometimes too

        [–]thefadd 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        On average though the magnetic field is getting more aligned with the axis of rotation.

        If I had to guess, it would make intuitive sense that this is the reason they are moving at in non-opposite directions and at different speeds. It’s somewhat add that we don’t have a straight forward axis in the first place. But if the poles are going to shift, it would make sense that the axis is related.