Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

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JQH
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Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by JQH » Mon Jun 01, 2020 10:19 pm

At least parts of it are. Some speculation that a pole reversal might be immanent (or indeed eminent)

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observ ... j4I5x6n16g
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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by Little waster » Tue Jun 09, 2020 6:43 pm

Have we tried turning it off and on again?
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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by dyqik » Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:33 pm

I don't remember a year when I haven't heard speculation of an imminent pole reversal.

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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by Little waster » Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:43 pm

I assume if it happens we'll have to turn all our maps upside down and all our fridge-magnets will drop off.

Something needs to be done!!!
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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by dyqik » Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:50 pm

Little waster wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:43 pm
I assume if it happens we'll have to turn all our maps upside down and all our fridge-magnets will drop off.

Something needs to be done!!!
I did something. Will that do?

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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by Little waster » Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:51 pm

dyqik wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:50 pm
Little waster wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:43 pm
I assume if it happens we'll have to turn all our maps upside down and all our fridge-magnets will drop off.

Something needs to be done!!!
I did something. Will that do?
*checks fridge* looks good to me. Also I need to buy milk.
This place is not a place of honor, no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here, nothing valued is here.
What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us.
This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by Bird on a Fire » Tue Jun 09, 2020 8:19 pm

dyqik wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:33 pm
I don't remember a year when I haven't heard speculation of an imminent pole reversal.
I was under the impression that they take hundreds or thousands of years to happen? Which means the word 'imminent' really needs to be caveatted with 'geologically' ;)

I expect that would be an incredibly difficult time to live through for all sorts of reasons, so judging by how 2020's gone so far I'd be very surprised if we don't have a reversal in the next few weeks, ushering in an age of geomagnetic chaos.
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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by Gfamily » Tue Jun 09, 2020 8:59 pm

Isogonic lines (lines of equal magnetic deviation) are moving faster than you might imagine.
Currently, in the UK they are moving West at a rate of about 2km per month.

https://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/hist ... clination/
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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by Gfamily » Tue Jun 09, 2020 9:04 pm

Gfamily wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 8:59 pm
Isogonic lines (lines of equal magnetic deviation) are moving faster than you might imagine.
Currently, in the UK they are moving West at a rate of about 2km per month.

https://maps.ngdc.noaa.gov/viewers/hist ... clination/
Going to Arctic view and selecting to track the position of the Magnetic Pole is interesting
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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by jimbob » Sat Jun 13, 2020 12:20 pm

dyqik wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:33 pm
I don't remember a year when I haven't heard speculation of an imminent pole reversal.
Likewise.
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation

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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Tue Jun 16, 2020 8:42 am

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 8:19 pm
dyqik wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:33 pm
I don't remember a year when I haven't heard speculation of an imminent pole reversal.
I was under the impression that they take hundreds or thousands of years to happen? Which means the word 'imminent' really needs to be caveatted with 'geologically' ;)
Right, so this is interesting - obviously the magnetic north pole is a reasonable distance from the actual north pole. So how does the process of reversal happen, exactly? Does it slowly move down through lower lines of latitude like a gap yah student? And what would be the impacts if it did reverse?
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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by darth tater » Wed Jun 17, 2020 3:52 pm

dyqik wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:33 pm
I don't remember a year when I haven't heard speculation of an imminent pole reversal.
It's rather like domestic power from nuclear fusion, which, I was informed in 2010, has been 30 years in the future since the 1950s.
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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by JQH » Wed Jun 17, 2020 4:07 pm

darth tater wrote:
Wed Jun 17, 2020 3:52 pm
dyqik wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:33 pm
I don't remember a year when I haven't heard speculation of an imminent pole reversal.
It's rather like domestic power from nuclear fusion, which, I was informed in 2010, has been 30 years in the future since the 1950s.
It was 40 years in the future when I was a student in the late 1970s.

It is still decades away.
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Re: Earth's Magnetic Field is Weakening

Post by jimbob » Wed Jun 17, 2020 5:50 pm

JQH wrote:
Wed Jun 17, 2020 4:07 pm
darth tater wrote:
Wed Jun 17, 2020 3:52 pm
dyqik wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:33 pm
I don't remember a year when I haven't heard speculation of an imminent pole reversal.
It's rather like domestic power from nuclear fusion, which, I was informed in 2010, has been 30 years in the future since the 1950s.
It was 40 years in the future when I was a student in the late 1970s.

It is still decades away.
The IET magazine in about 2008 (It's now removed from their website) had an article about this - interviewing a senior fusion researcher.

He stated that getting break-even wasn't the main engineering challenge. But the lifetime of the plant was. With current technologies, the reactor would have a max lifetime of about 18-months.
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation

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