Some 42, years ago, in an event known as the Laschamp Excursion, the poles did just that for around years, before swapping back -- but scientists were unsure exactly how or if it impacted the world. Earth's magnetic north pole is heading for Russia and scientists are puzzled. Now, a team of researchers from Sydney's University of New South Wales and the South Australian Museum say the flip, along with changing solar winds, could have triggered an array of dramatic climate shifts leading to environmental change and mass extinctions.
Scientists analyzed the rings found in ancient New Zealand kauri trees, some which had been preserved in sediments for more than 40, years, to create a timescale of how Earth's atmosphere changed over time. Read More.
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Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Morocco has 3 million stray dogs. Earth's magnetic field has flipped — now Greenland is in the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctica in the Northern.
What should you expect from a planet where you can't trust a compass to point the way you're used to? The magnetic field does more than provide compasses a reference point: It shields us from the full impact of the solar wind — charged particles emitted from the sun that would otherwise bombard us with ultraviolet radiation.
The origins of the magnetic field start thousands of miles beneath Earth's surface, where convection in the outer core produces electrical currents that, in combination with Earth's rotation, create and sustain a magnetic field that runs through the planet like a bar magnet with two poles, north and south aka the dipole. When we talk about Earth's magnetic field flipping, we mean an event where those poles reverse.
Based on information stored in cooled lava rocks, we know this has already happened before — about times in the last million years [source: Fleming ]. The last time it happened was , years ago, though a temporary reversal occurred 41, years ago and lasted less than 1, years [source: Livermore and Mound ].
The causes of these reversals remain mysterious, and there's no way to fully predict when the next one might occur [source: Roach]. However, we know that a flip doesn't happen overnight. Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big Grassroots efforts are bringing solar panels to rural villages without electricity, while massive solar arrays are being built across the country.
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