"Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories." - Sun Tzu
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Mysterious Baltic Sea Object Raises More Questions
Mysterious Baltic Sea Object Raises More Questions
http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/news_europe/2012-06-20/mysterious-baltic-se...
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Relics found on Chinese ship sunken 200 years ago
Xiaobai Jiao-1, an ancient merchant vessel which sank nearly 200 years ago during the Qing Dynasty. Recently archaeologists have found relic stones and porcelain pieces on-board the sunken ship.
The ship sank in waters near Ningbo city, which was a major hub for sea trade in ancient China.
Archaeologists are working 24 meters below sea level. It was there they found the Mei Yuan stones piled on the boat's bottom. These precious stones were used as gifts for communication in ancient times.
An archaeologist says, "We have seen three bowls with green and white patterns. Two of them are broken and the rest is complete with the cover."
Archaeologists have also found porcelain pieces, pottery, seals, Spanish coins, stone and wooden pieces.
In addition, experts have found a rich variety of relics that will provide valuable information to historians about trade during those times.
2MIN News June 28, 2012
TODAYS LINKS
Magentic Solar Tornados: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/06/120627-sun-solar-tornadoes-st...
Aerosol Map: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=78389
EU Summit: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/28/us-eurozone-idUSBRE85O0CS20120628
Fukushima Record Radiation: http://phys.org/news/2012-06-fukushima-reactor.html
REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]
HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]
SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos - as seen from earth]
SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT - as seen from earth]
Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI - as seen from the side]
SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it... trust me]
SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]
iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/cme-based/ [CME Evolution]
RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]
JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/
LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php
Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can't figure out what this one is for?]
BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]
TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]
GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]
INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]
NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/
PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]
Always Check the Foreign News Sources as well!!!
Iran: Mehr News, TehranTimes
China: Xinhua, China.org, Chinadaily
Russia: Ria Novosti
Israel: Jerusalem Post, Israel National News, Haaretz
M/E: ArabNews, AlJazeera
Plasma Cloud to Collide with Galactic Center in 2013
Countdown to a black hole show-Researchers are watching the first scenes of a cosmic show that's expected to heat up over the next year as a giant gas cloud approaches the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
The impending collision was the subject of a research paper published in Nature last December, and now the European Research Media Center is providing an update: By mid-2013, the cloud is expected to pass in the vicinity of the black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, at a distance of 36 light-hours, or less than 25 billion miles (40 billion kilometers).
Black holes are gravitational singularities so dense that nothing, not even light, can escape their grip. They can only be detected by their gravitational influence on their surroundings, or by the blazing swirl of material being sucked down into their maw.
Some black holes are thought to be created when massive stars collapse. Others, like Sagittarius A*, are thought to be crushed into existence as part of the galaxy formation process. Sagittarius A* is 4.3 million times as massive as our sun, and is located 27,000 light-years from our solar system. There's no danger that this black hole will gobble up the galaxy — in fact, it's unusually well-behaved, which is one reason why humanity has been able to hang around long enough to detect it.
Stefan Gillessen, an astrophysicist at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, has been observing Sagittarius A* for the past 20 years. He says next year's encounter could provide an unprecedented view of our supermassive black hole at its best ... or at its worst.
A computer simulation shows the elongation and breakup of a cloud of gas as it encounters the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Click on the image for an update and video on the encounter, which is expected to begin in 2013.
"So far, there were only two stars that came that close to Sagittarius A*," the media center quotes him as saying. "They passed unharmed, but this time will be different: The gas cloud will be completely ripped apart by the tidal forces of the black hole."
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory say the speed of the cloud's progress has nearly doubled over the past seven years, to more than 5 million mph (8 million kilometers per hour). They report that the cloud's edges are already beginning to shred. During the months to come, it should break up into elongated filaments. "It will look like spaghetti," Gillessen said.
The cloud is also expected to get much hotter, and will probably start emitting X-rays.
Reinhard Genzel, who heads the ESO's team of astronomers, said the show won't end with next year's expected encounter.
"The next few years will be really fantastic and exciting, because we're probing the territory," he said in the media center's video report. "Here this cloud comes in, gets disrupted, but now it will begin to interact with the hot gas right around the black hole. We have never seen this before." http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/26/12423938-countdown-to-a-black...
A giant gas cloud is on a collision course with our galaxy's supermassive black hole. This will give scientists the ability to watch the spaghetti-fying destruction of the cloud in real time. Credit: Youris.com / ESO / NASA. Published on Jun 27, 2012 by VideoFromSpace
2012 Galactic Core Burst Theory (Gamma Ray Burst from Galactic Center) https://www.facebook.com/pages/2012-Galactic-Core-Burst-Theory-Gamma-Ray-Burs...
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
2MIN News June 26, 2012: Canary Islands Awaken
TODAYS LINKS
Cyprus Needs Money: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/us-eurozone-idUSBRE85O0CS20120625
Greek Finance Minister Resigns: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/us-greece-idUSBRE85M0AW20120625
BP Spill Wasn't the Start: http://phys.org/news/2012-06-bp-deepwater-horizon-oil-exacerbated.html
Magnetism and Superconductivity: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120625125954.htm
REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]
HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]
SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos - as seen from earth]
SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT - as seen from earth]
Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI - as seen from the side]
SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it... trust me]
SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]
iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/cme-based/ [CME Evolution]
RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]
JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/
LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php
Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can't figure out what this one is for?]
BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]
TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]
GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]
INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]
NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/
PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]
Always Check the Foreign News Sources as well!!!
Iran: Mehr News, TehranTimes
China: Xinhua, China.org, Chinadaily
Russia: Ria Novosti
Israel: Jerusalem Post, Israel National News, Haaretz
M/E: ArabNews, AlJazeera
OPERATION TROJAN HORSE - DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (UNDERGROUND)
One persons story of waking up to reality, everyone is encouraged to watch this movie.
To Download This Video: Click the following URL below, wait until the video streams completely, then click the arrow pointing down, select "save As source":
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/12/12/2221433/OTH_08.mov
6/25/2012 -- Severe weather update = South, East Coast, Northeast, West / NW
From South Florida.. extending up the east coast mid atlantic states.. further up in to new England and Southeast Canada (east of montreal).. we see TWO large systems --- tropical storm Debby off the northwest coast panhandle of Florida .... and a large low pressure system over southeast Canada and New England.
In between these two systems on the east coast --- a large outbreak of hail across North Carolina.
In the midwest to the northwest --- Utah, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, and SW Canada (west of saskatoon and over lethbridge) .. hail , damaging winds, and possible tornadoes.
Over the Southwest USA -- Arizona and at the mexico border hail and damaging winds.
Tropical storm Debby will continue to push NE along Florida, Georgia, South Carolina.. eventually out to the Atlantic.
Monday, June 25, 2012
The Stream: Governor Jesse Ventura - Politics or Gang Warfare?
We talk to former U.S. Governor Jesse Ventura who argues that politicians have become as corrupt as criminal gangs.
Strategic Relocation: Preparing for the Economic Collapse with Joel Skousen
Radio show host Alex Jones welcomes back to the show Joel Skousen, political commentator non-fiction Survivalist author, and retreat consultant who specializes in preparedness topics, particularly survival retreat and fallout shelter design and construction, as well as in what he calls "strategic relocation." Skousen discusses his book, "Strategic Relocation--North American Guide to Safe Places."
Live samples are brought back by China's Jiaolong - 蛟龙号下潜带回生物样品
On 6/22/2012, China's manned submersible Jiaolong, attempted the 3rd dive on its 7000-m level sea trials. The submersible stays for 3 hours in the deep sea, reaching the depth of 6963 meters. Divers have bottomed the vessel on the sea bed at that depth for 6 times, successfully bringing back three water samples, three sediment samples, and high-resolution pictures of the undersea creatures.
我国载人潜水器蛟龙号22日进行了7000米级海试的第三次深潜，在海底作业三个多小时，六次坐底，最大下潜深度6963米。这次下潜蛟龙号取得三个水样、三个沉积物样，
BREAKING NEWS: New FAST Growing sunspot forming at SE limb
A new sunspot located in the SE quadrant continues to rapidly grow...
WEBSITE: thewatchers.com
Posted by: Chillymanjaro, thewatchers
CREDIT: SolarHam
http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2012/06/25/new-fast-growing-sunspot-forming-...
Researchers Propose New Stonehenge Theory
Researchers from a UK project propose a new theory that Stonehenge was built to unify ancient warring tribes in Britain.
Domestic Drones 101
RT America brings you extensive coverage of the Federal Aviation Administration's plan to allow unmanned drones to fill America's sky by 2020, but what does this mean for Americans? RT's Abby Martin breaks down the possible uses for drones.
Like RT America and/or follow them at:
http://twitter.com/RT_America
http://www.facebook.com/RTAmerica
One Shot At Biker Cancer Benefit For Children "Metalfest" Spanaway WA
June 2, 2012. At Uncle Sam's American Grill. The 16100 block of Pacific Ave South aka The Mountain Highway. Spanaway, WA. The Bikers Fighting Cancer motorcycle club was holding a benefit concert at the bar and grill to raise money for families with children who are fighting cancer. Several different clubs attended the event. A member of the Ghostriders club arrived in a red station wagon, confronted a BFC member who had gone out to his motorcycle and shot him. The victim ran across the busy highway to get away from the shooter. Other BFC members and other attendees fought the assailant getting the gun away from him, and staying on top of the gunman until law enforcement arrived and arrested him. Central Pierce Fire and Rescue responded and transported the injured party who was shot in the arm and will survive.
The concert continued while the Pierce County Sheriff and the Washington State Patrol investigated the shooting. A heavy police presence remained at the scene to prevent further violence.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
2MIN News June 24, 2012: Quakes, Tropical Storm, F1 Critical Frequency
AMAZING: http://www.universetoday.com/95920/a-gamma-ray-burst-as-music/
TODAYS LINKS
Gulf Storm Threat: http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/local/florida-or-texas-forecast-m...
Tel Aviv Protest Violence: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/violent-arrests-of-social-protesters-in-...
Oil Workers Flee Debbie: http://www.weather.com/news/oil-workers-evacuated-20120623
China Spacedock: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2012-06/24/c_131672642.htm
REPEAT LINKS
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com/ [Look on the left at the X-ray Flux and Solar Wind Speed/Density]
HAARP: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/data.html [Click online data, and have a little fun]
SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/ [Place to find Solar Images and Videos - as seen from earth]
SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater [SOHO; Lasco and EIT - as seen from earth]
Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images [Stereo; Cor, EUVI, HI - as seen from the side]
SunAEON:http://www.sunaeon.com/#/solarsystem/ [Just click it... trust me]
SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/ [All purpose data viewing site]
iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html [Free Application; for advanced sun watchers]
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/cme-based/ [CME Evolution]
RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]
JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/
LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_gsn.php
Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/ [Really? You can't figure out what this one is for?]
BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spaceweather/welcome.html [Top left box, look for BIG blue circles]
TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-torcon-index [Tornado Forecast for the day]
GOES Weather: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/ [Clouds over America]
INTELLICAST: http://www.intellicast.com/ [Weather site used by many youtubers]
NASA News: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/
PHYSORG: http://phys.org/ [GREAT News Site!]
Always Check the Foreign News Sources as well!!!
Iran: Mehr News, TehranTimes
China: Xinhua, China.org, Chinadaily
Russia: Ria Novosti
Israel: Jerusalem Post, Israel National News, Haaretz
M/E: ArabNews, AlJazeera
Saturday, June 23, 2012
FEMA's Capstone Event : CDP Mass Casualty Disaster Training Camp
Those passing through McClellan Friday morning might have thought they had stumbled onto the set of a blockbuster disaster movie near the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Domestic Preparedness facility.
The blocked-off area outside the Noble Training Facility was overrun with people in protective gear, actors with realistic flesh-wound makeup and quick-setup decontamination centers. It was all part of the CDP's Integrated Capstone Event — a massive disaster simulation that pooled resources from law enforcement, hazardous material and medical response teams.
More than 200 students representing 85 agencies from 33 states participated in Friday's exercise.
"Training is a critical element of FEMA's mission to support our local, state and tribal first responders," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate was quoted as saying in a press release. "Combining multiple disciplines, CDP's unique facilities offer responders the opportunity to experience a mass casualty incident and truly prepare for similar events in their own communities."
The capstone event — the third the CDP has hosted since last year — provides students at the weekly training sessions a chance to integrate all their learning into one exercise. Friday's simulation involved a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new medical facility at a fictional university. The imaginary event turned violent when protesters were able to force their way into the building and set off an explosion.
Under the scenario, law enforcement officials worked to secure the premises, arrest the protesters and find potential victims. Hazardous material responders searched the building for signs of chemical contamination and quarantined the hospital from possible spread of dangerous chemicals. Meanwhile, hospital workers at the Noble Training Facility's new hospital simulation quarters were busy as patients — role players hired to help out for the day — filled up the waiting rooms and trauma bays, suffering everything from imagined flesh wounds to crush injuries.
The most important aspect of the event, said Mike King, acting superintendent of the CDP, was to remove the different responders from isolated training to begin to understand how different agencies can work together under extreme circumstances.
"The problem is not with the teams, it's how they work with each other," King said. "It's so critical for us to put all the pieces together."
Greg Pippins, one of the event's coordinators, said although full details and scenarios were mostly provided as the events were unfolding, the students from different disciplines had been communicating with each other all week to better understand how their roles would play out on Friday.
"It's important to know what each entity can bring to the table," Pippins said. "Law enforcement has capabilities the hazmat people don't and the hazmat has capabilities law enforcement doesn't. When we can bring those capabilities together, it's a very good thing."
Besides the simulated mass casualties, hospital overflow and possible threat of chemical contamination, there was one real-life threat on Friday: Temperatures hit 90 degrees around 10 a.m.
"The heat's providing a secondary caution — fatigue," Pippins said. "And that kind of thing happens in real life, and we're letting them rehab."
Cooling off after a morning of securing the building where the explosion occurred, Brent Wheat, a police lieutenant from Lebanon, Ind., said the biggest advantage the CDP offers is the space, time and facilities to pull off large exercises, using vast amounts of manpower.
"This type of thing would be hard to stage on a local level," Wheat said. "We don't have the ability to do this anywhere else. This facility is incredible."
Rick Dickson, the Assistant Director for Education and Training at the CDP, said a capstone event takes about three months of planning but costs no more than a normal day of training students and responders at the center. Two more simulations at the CDP are planned for 2012. Dickson said next year the center is planning to put together eight, with the hopes of implementing the events monthly after that.
http://tinyurl.com/72ppmzr
The Order of the Dragon (OOD) Program consists of three Awards. These awards are the Ancient Order, the Honorable Order, and the Carol Ann Watson Spouse Award.
The CCRA gives these awards to recognize "Dragon Soldiers" (and their spouses) who have demonstrated the highest standards of integrity and moral character, an outstanding degree of professional competence, and have contributed to the promotion of the Chemical Corps in numerous ways over the course of their career.
http://tinyurl.com/723tuf8
Friday, June 22, 2012
Nova - Magnetic Storm - Earth's Invisible Shield
Like the plot of a sci-fi B movie, something weird is happening deep underground where the constant spin of Earth's liquid metallic core generates an invisible magnetic force field that shields our planet from harmful radiation in space. Gradually, the field is growing weaker. Could we be heading for a demagnetized doomsday that will leave us defenseless against the lethal effects of solar wind and cosmic rays? "Magnetic Storm" looks into our potentially unsettling magnetic future.
Scientists studying the problem are looking everywhere from Mars, which suffered a magnetic crisis four billion years ago and has been devoid of a magnetic field, an appreciable atmosphere, and possibly life ever since, to a laboratory at the University of Maryland, where a team headed by physicist Dan Lathrop has re-created the molten iron dynamo at Earth's core by using 240 pounds of highly explosive molten sodium. The most visible signs of Earth's magnetic field are auroras, which are caused by charged particles from space interacting with the atmosphere as they flow into the north and south magnetic poles.
But the warning signs of a declining field are subtler—though they are evident in every clay dish that was ever fired. During high-temperature baking, iron minerals in clay record the exact state of Earth's magnetic field at that precise moment. By examining pots from prehistory to modern times, geologist John Shaw of the University of Liverpool in England has discovered just how dramatically the field has changed. "When we plot the results from the ceramics," he notes, "we see a rapid fall as we come toward the present day. The rate of change is higher over the last 300 years than it has been for any time in the past 5,000 years. It's going from a strong field down to a weak field, and it's doing so very quickly."
At the present rate, Earth's magnetic field could be gone within a few centuries, exposing the planet to the relentless blast of charged particles from space with unpredictable consequences for the atmosphere and life. Other possibilities: the field could stop weakening and begin to strengthen, or it could weaken to the point that it suddenly flips polarity—that is, compasses begin to point to the South Magnetic Pole.
An even older record of Earth's fluctuating field than Shaw refers to shows a more complicated picture. Ancient lava flows from the Hawaiian Islands reveal both the strength of the field when the lava cooled and its orientation—the direction of magnetic north and south. "When we go back about 700,000 years," says geologist Mike Fuller of the University of Hawaii, "we find an incredible phenomenon. Suddenly the rocks are magnetized backwards. Instead of them being magnetized to the north like today's field, they are magnetized to the south."
Such a reversal of polarity seems to happen every 250,000 years on average, making us long overdue for another swap between the north and south magnetic poles. Scientist Gary Glatzmaier of the University of California at Santa Cruz has actually observed such reversals, as they occur in computer simulations (view one in See a Reversal). These virtual events show striking similarities to the current behavior of Earth's magnetic field and suggest we are about to experience another reversal, though it will take centuries to unfold.
Some researchers believe we are already in the transition phase, with growing areas of magnetic anomaly—where field lines are moving the wrong way—signaling an ever weaker and chaotic state for our protective shield.
Geophysicist Rob Coe, also of the University of California at Santa Cruz, may have even found a lava record in Oregon that charts the magnetic mayhem that ensues during a period of reversal. The picture that emerges may not be up to Hollywood disaster standards, but considering that human civilization has never had to cope with such a situation before, it could be an interesting and challenging time.
Scientists: Magnetic polar reversal may have started
he magnetic field protects all life from damaging solar radiation.
Exposure to such radiation can cause cancer and mutate DNA. Some
researchers believe evolution has been driven in part by epochs marked
by a failing or weak magnetic field that allowed the surface of the
world to be bathed with intense ultra-violet and other deadly forms of
life-changing radiation.
Now new evidence has emerged leading some scientists to believe that the magnetic pole shift—an ongoing phenomenon that has been happening for decades—has reached a tipping point.
According to a report issued by the prestigious British Geological Survey (BGS), evidence suggests the magnetic reversal has begun.
The BGS has taken this position based on careful analysis of a region of the Earth known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). It's an area where the magnetic field is in a state of flux and has weakened noticeably. The data shows the anomaly is growing rapidly and spreading west from South Africa.
All of this indicates the Earth's liquid core is changing.
"This may be early evidence of a forthcoming reversal in the direction of the Earth’s internal magnetic field," states the article on the BGS website.
The horrible truth
Why scientists and others are not eager to share is the fact that no one alive has a clue what will happen as the magnetic field weakens and shifts and then flips.
There are educated guesses and best guesses. There are extrapolations and assumptions. And there are theories—lot's of them. They range from the shift causing minor inconveniences like recalibrating runways at airports like the facility in Tampa was recently forced to do, to Doomsday scenarios where the entire field disappears exposing all life—including human life—to blistering, deadly radiation and the ghastly mutations that follow.
Some geophysicists believe that the process of magnetic pole shift takes hundreds or thousands of years. Yet others point to an 11,500 year cycle and evidence of a correlation between leaps in evolution (they argue driven by radiation exposure).
Data points
Woolly mammoths went extinct when the Gothenburg magnetic reversal occurred some 11,500 years ago.
The Earth collapsed into a catastrophic Ice Age when the Mono Lake magnetic reversal took place 23,000 years ago.
Tipping point
Now new evidence has emerged leading some scientists to believe that the magnetic pole shift—an ongoing phenomenon that has been happening for decades—has reached a tipping point.
According to a report issued by the prestigious British Geological Survey (BGS), evidence suggests the magnetic reversal has begun.
The BGS has taken this position based on careful analysis of a region of the Earth known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). It's an area where the magnetic field is in a state of flux and has weakened noticeably. The data shows the anomaly is growing rapidly and spreading west from South Africa.
All of this indicates the Earth's liquid core is changing.
"This may be early evidence of a forthcoming reversal in the direction of the Earth’s internal magnetic field," states the article on the BGS website.
The horrible truth
Why scientists and others are not eager to share is the fact that no one alive has a clue what will happen as the magnetic field weakens and shifts and then flips.
There are educated guesses and best guesses. There are extrapolations and assumptions. And there are theories—lot's of them. They range from the shift causing minor inconveniences like recalibrating runways at airports like the facility in Tampa was recently forced to do, to Doomsday scenarios where the entire field disappears exposing all life—including human life—to blistering, deadly radiation and the ghastly mutations that follow.
Some geophysicists believe that the process of magnetic pole shift takes hundreds or thousands of years. Yet others point to an 11,500 year cycle and evidence of a correlation between leaps in evolution (they argue driven by radiation exposure).
Data points
Woolly mammoths went extinct when the Gothenburg magnetic reversal occurred some 11,500 years ago.
The Earth collapsed into a catastrophic Ice Age when the Mono Lake magnetic reversal took place 23,000 years ago.
The Geodynamo
Paleomagnetic records indicate that the
geomagnetic field has existed for at least three billion years.
However, based on the size and electrical conductivity
of the Earth's core, the field, if it were not continually being
generated, would decay away in only about 20,000 years since the
temperature of the core is too high to sustain permanent magnetism.
In addition, paleomagnetic records show that
the dipole polarity of the geomagnetic field has reversed many times in the
past, the mean time between reversals being roughly 200,000 years with
individual reversal events taking only a couple thousand years.
These observations argue for a mechanism within the Earth's interior that continually generates the geomagnetic field. It has long been speculated that this mechanism is a convective dynamo operating in the Earth's fluid outer core, which surrounds its solid inner core, both being mainly composed of iron. The solid inner core is roughly the size of the moon but at the temperature of the surface of the sun. The convection in the fluid outer core is thought to be driven by both thermal and compositional buoyancy sources at the inner core boundary that are produced as the Earth slowly cools and iron in the iron-rich fluid alloy solidifies onto the inner core giving off latent heat and the light constituent of the alloy. These buoyancy forces cause fluid to rise and the Coriolis forces, due to the Earth's rotation, cause the fluid flows to be helical. Presumably this fluid motion twists and shears magnetic field, generating new magnetic field to replace that which diffuses away.
However, until now, no detailed dynamically self-consistent model existed that demonstrated this could actually work or explained why the geomagnetic field has the intensity it does, has a strongly dipole-dominated structure with a dipole axis nearly aligned with the Earth's rotation axis, has non-dipolar field structure that varies on the time scale of ten to one hundred years and why the field occasionally undergoes dipole reversals. In order to test the convective dynamo hypothesis and attempt to answer these longstanding questions, the first self-consistent numerical model, the Glatzmaier-Roberts model, was developed that simulates convection and magnetic field generation in a fluid outer core surrounding a solid inner core (Figure 1) with the dimensions, rotation rate, heat flow and (as much as possible) the material properties of the Earth's core [1-5]. The magnetohydrodynamic equations that describe this problem are solved using a spectral method (spherical harmonic and Chebyshev polynomial expansions) that treats all linear terms implicitly and nonlinear terms explicitly [4]. These equations are solved over and over, advancing the time dependent solution 15 days at a time.
Fig.1 A snapshot of the region (yellow) where the fluid flow is the greatest. The core-mantle boundary is the blue mesh; the inner core boundary is the red mesh. Large zonal flows (eastward near the inner core and westward near the mantle) exist on an imaginary "tangent cylinder" due to the effects of large rotation, small fluid viscosity, and the presence of the solid inner core within spherical shell of the outer fluid core. (click on image to download, 0.15 Mb) The resulting three-dimensional numerical simulation of the geodynamo, run on parallel supercomputers at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, now spans more than 300,000 years. The simulated magnetic field has an intensity and a dipole dominated structure that is very similar to the Earth's (Figure 2) and a westward drift of the non-dipolar structures of the field at the surface that is essentially the same as the 0.2 degrees/year measured on the Earth. Our solution illustrates how the influence of the Earth's rotation on convection in the fluid outer core is responsible for this magnetic field structure and time dependence [1].
Fig.2 A snapshot of the 3D magnetic field structure simulated with the Glatzmaier-Roberts geodynamo model. Magnetic field lines are blue where the field is directed inward and yellow where directed outward. The rotation axis of the model Earth is vertical and through the center. A transition occurs at the core-mantle boundary from the intense, complicated field structure in the fluid core, where the field is generated, to the smooth, potential field structure outside the core. The field lines are drawn out to two Earth radii. Magnetic field is rapped around the "tangent cylinder" due to the shear of the zonal fluid flow (Fig. 1). (click on image to download, 0.15 Mb) In addition, about 36,000 years into the simulation the magnetic field underwent a reversal of its dipole moment (Figure 3), over a period of a little more than a thousand years. The intensity of the magnetic dipole moment decreased by about a factor of ten during the reversal and recovered immediately after, similar to what is seen in the Earth's paleomagnetic reversal record. Our solution shows how convection in the fluid outer core is continually trying to reverse the field but that the solid inner core inhibits magnetic reversals because the field in the inner core can only change on the much longer time scale of diffusion [2]. Only once in many attempts is a reversal successful, which is probably the reason why the times between reversals of the Earth's field are long and randomly distributed.
After the first magnetic reversal, we continued our simulation on two
different branches: one by continuing to prescribe a uniform heat flux
out of the core at the core-mantle boundary and the other by
prescribing a heterogeneous heat flux there that is similar to the
Earth's present pattern. The former has not reversed again; the latter
underwent two more reversals, roughly 100,000 years apart. This
demonstrates the influence the thermal structure in the lower mantle
has on the style of convection and magnetic field generation in the
fluid core below. View a
movie
of one of our simulated magnetic reversals.
One part of this numerical solution is the rotation rate of the solid inner core relative to the surface, which evolves according to the torque applied on the inner core by the generated magnetic field. Our solution shows how the field couples the inner core to the eastward flowing fluid above it (Figure 4a), keeping it in co-rotation [5]. This mechanism is analogous to a synchronous electric motor for which the field, carried eastward by the fluid, acts like the rotating field in the stator and the inner core acts like the rotor.
Fig.4 (a) A snapshot of the simulated magnetic field structure within the core, with lines blue where outside the solid inner core and yellow where inside. Again, the rotation axis is vertical. (click on image to download, 0.24 Mb) (b) A schematic image illustrating the super-rotation of the inner core relative to the Earth's surface. The inner core in our simulation initially rotated between 2 and 3 degrees longitude per year faster than the solid mantle and surface [1, 5]. This prediction in 1995 [1] for the Earth motivated two seismologists from Columbia University in early 1996 to search for evidence of this super-rotation in 30 years of seismic data. They found evidence that supports our prediction and published it in July 1996 [6], (Figure 4b). More recent simulations of ours that now include a simple parameterization for the gravitational coupling that may exist between the mantle and the inner core have a much smaller inner core rotation amplitude; however, this rotation is still predominantly eastward relative to the model Earth's surface.
For more about the Geodynamo, visit these links:
These observations argue for a mechanism within the Earth's interior that continually generates the geomagnetic field. It has long been speculated that this mechanism is a convective dynamo operating in the Earth's fluid outer core, which surrounds its solid inner core, both being mainly composed of iron. The solid inner core is roughly the size of the moon but at the temperature of the surface of the sun. The convection in the fluid outer core is thought to be driven by both thermal and compositional buoyancy sources at the inner core boundary that are produced as the Earth slowly cools and iron in the iron-rich fluid alloy solidifies onto the inner core giving off latent heat and the light constituent of the alloy. These buoyancy forces cause fluid to rise and the Coriolis forces, due to the Earth's rotation, cause the fluid flows to be helical. Presumably this fluid motion twists and shears magnetic field, generating new magnetic field to replace that which diffuses away.
However, until now, no detailed dynamically self-consistent model existed that demonstrated this could actually work or explained why the geomagnetic field has the intensity it does, has a strongly dipole-dominated structure with a dipole axis nearly aligned with the Earth's rotation axis, has non-dipolar field structure that varies on the time scale of ten to one hundred years and why the field occasionally undergoes dipole reversals. In order to test the convective dynamo hypothesis and attempt to answer these longstanding questions, the first self-consistent numerical model, the Glatzmaier-Roberts model, was developed that simulates convection and magnetic field generation in a fluid outer core surrounding a solid inner core (Figure 1) with the dimensions, rotation rate, heat flow and (as much as possible) the material properties of the Earth's core [1-5]. The magnetohydrodynamic equations that describe this problem are solved using a spectral method (spherical harmonic and Chebyshev polynomial expansions) that treats all linear terms implicitly and nonlinear terms explicitly [4]. These equations are solved over and over, advancing the time dependent solution 15 days at a time.
Fig.1 A snapshot of the region (yellow) where the fluid flow is the greatest. The core-mantle boundary is the blue mesh; the inner core boundary is the red mesh. Large zonal flows (eastward near the inner core and westward near the mantle) exist on an imaginary "tangent cylinder" due to the effects of large rotation, small fluid viscosity, and the presence of the solid inner core within spherical shell of the outer fluid core. (click on image to download, 0.15 Mb) The resulting three-dimensional numerical simulation of the geodynamo, run on parallel supercomputers at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, now spans more than 300,000 years. The simulated magnetic field has an intensity and a dipole dominated structure that is very similar to the Earth's (Figure 2) and a westward drift of the non-dipolar structures of the field at the surface that is essentially the same as the 0.2 degrees/year measured on the Earth. Our solution illustrates how the influence of the Earth's rotation on convection in the fluid outer core is responsible for this magnetic field structure and time dependence [1].
Fig.2 A snapshot of the 3D magnetic field structure simulated with the Glatzmaier-Roberts geodynamo model. Magnetic field lines are blue where the field is directed inward and yellow where directed outward. The rotation axis of the model Earth is vertical and through the center. A transition occurs at the core-mantle boundary from the intense, complicated field structure in the fluid core, where the field is generated, to the smooth, potential field structure outside the core. The field lines are drawn out to two Earth radii. Magnetic field is rapped around the "tangent cylinder" due to the shear of the zonal fluid flow (Fig. 1). (click on image to download, 0.15 Mb) In addition, about 36,000 years into the simulation the magnetic field underwent a reversal of its dipole moment (Figure 3), over a period of a little more than a thousand years. The intensity of the magnetic dipole moment decreased by about a factor of ten during the reversal and recovered immediately after, similar to what is seen in the Earth's paleomagnetic reversal record. Our solution shows how convection in the fluid outer core is continually trying to reverse the field but that the solid inner core inhibits magnetic reversals because the field in the inner core can only change on the much longer time scale of diffusion [2]. Only once in many attempts is a reversal successful, which is probably the reason why the times between reversals of the Earth's field are long and randomly distributed.
|
|
|
| Fig.3 Like in Fig. 2, but 500 years before the middle of a magnetic dipole reversal, | at the middle of the reversal, and | 500 years after the middle of the reversal. (click on images to download, 0.15 Mb each) |
One part of this numerical solution is the rotation rate of the solid inner core relative to the surface, which evolves according to the torque applied on the inner core by the generated magnetic field. Our solution shows how the field couples the inner core to the eastward flowing fluid above it (Figure 4a), keeping it in co-rotation [5]. This mechanism is analogous to a synchronous electric motor for which the field, carried eastward by the fluid, acts like the rotating field in the stator and the inner core acts like the rotor.
| 
|
Fig.4 (a) A snapshot of the simulated magnetic field structure within the core, with lines blue where outside the solid inner core and yellow where inside. Again, the rotation axis is vertical. (click on image to download, 0.24 Mb) (b) A schematic image illustrating the super-rotation of the inner core relative to the Earth's surface. The inner core in our simulation initially rotated between 2 and 3 degrees longitude per year faster than the solid mantle and surface [1, 5]. This prediction in 1995 [1] for the Earth motivated two seismologists from Columbia University in early 1996 to search for evidence of this super-rotation in 30 years of seismic data. They found evidence that supports our prediction and published it in July 1996 [6], (Figure 4b). More recent simulations of ours that now include a simple parameterization for the gravitational coupling that may exist between the mantle and the inner core have a much smaller inner core rotation amplitude; however, this rotation is still predominantly eastward relative to the model Earth's surface.
For more about the Geodynamo, visit these links:
|
The Earth’s Weakening Geomagnetic Force and Possible Polar Reversal
Have you ever wondered when the magnetic poles are going to reverse or
‘flip’ next, what might cause this and what will happen to life on Earth
when and if they do? No, then maybe you are not a worrier like me and
so I apologize in advance if this article gives you any cause for
concern, I also apologize for the article's ludicrous length which I
have tried unsuccessfully to curtail.
Unfortunately, it seems to me, as only an interested laywoman and a Science2.0 blogger who is definitely not an expert on this subject, that there are few scientific experts in this field who appear to be able to confidently and convincingly answer these controversial questions. This may be because there are so many conflicting hypotheses surrounding the subject, a lack of conclusive data and a lot of speculation, which I am now also contributing to with this blog.
However, one thing is apparent to me, most of the ‘experts’ seem to agree that we are overdue for a geomagnetic pole reversal and that there are even signs that this has already started to happen. Is it possible then that scientists and politicians are not eager to share the fact that no one is really sure about what will happen as the magnetic field weakens, shifts and then flips?
My admittedly rather limited internet research indicates that no one really knows for sure why and when these pole reversals have happened in the past, what exactly their effects were or even when they will happen next and what the effects will be then, but that there are definitely plenty of conflicting hypotheses, all of which are not easy to test and prove for obvious reasons.
The History of Polar Reversals and Shifts
Some geophysicists claim that the process of magnetic pole shift takes hundreds of thousands of years and that it is 750,000 years since the last magnetic pole reversal occurred within an approximately 200,000 year cycle. Others hypothesize a much shorter 10,000 year cycle, and claim that the last reversal occurred about 11,500 years ago, and that there is evidence of a correlation between reversals and leaps in evolution, driven by the resulting radiation exposure resulting from a damaged geomagnetic field or magnetosphere, that usually protects us living organisms from the solar radiation that can cause cancer and mutate our DNA.
How the Geomagnetic Force is thought to work.
Apparently in the center of our planet Earth there resides a spinning solid iron ball, which researchers call the ‘inner core’. The ball is about the same temperature as the surface of the sun at approximately 5778 K (5505 °C) and it is like a world within a world or maybe even like a heart within a living body. The inner core is 70% as wide as the moon and spins at its own rate, faster than the Earth above it. This ball or ‘inner core’ is surrounded by its own molten ocean which is a very deep layer of liquid iron called ‘the outer core’. The Earth's magnetic field apparently originates from this ocean of molten iron, an electrically conducting fluid which is in constant motion. This liquid ‘outer core’ seethes and surges like a stormy sea, with currents and whirlpools powered by the Coriolis forces of Earth's rotation and these complex motions and interactions supposedly generate the geomagnetic field and the resulting magnetosphere through a process called the ‘dynamo effect’.
It is believed that the convection in the fluid outer core is driven by thermal and compositional buoyancy sources at the boundary between the inner and outer cores, which are produced by the effect of the Earth slowly cooling and the iron in the iron-rich fluid alloy solidifying onto the inner core creating latent heat and the light constituent of the alloy. These buoyancy forces then cause fluid to rise and Coriolis forces, due to the Earth's rotation, cause helical fluid flows. This fluid motion, like waves and currents in an ocean, apparently twists and shears the magnetic field, at the same time as it generates a new magnetic field to replace the current geomagnetic force as it diffuses away.
Evidence of Past Polar Reversals.
Paleomagnetic records indicate that the geomagnetic field has existed for at least three billion years and that if it were not being continually regenerated, it would probably have decayed after 20,000 years, as the temperature of the core is too high to sustain permanent magnetism on its own. Paleomagnetic records also show that the dipole polarity of this geomagnetic field has reversed many times in the past, in other words the north and south poles have already repeatedly reversed or ‘flipped’ and the mean time between reversals is roughly 200,000 years with individual reversal events often taking only a couple thousand years and occasionally possibly even much less time to occur. These ‘mean’ statistics may be a bit misleading though, if the ‘flips’ have occurred randomly over that period and according to Wikipedia the rate of reversals in the Earth's magnetic field has varied widely over time.
Wikipedia claims that ‘72 million years ago (Ma), the field reversed 5 times in a million years. In a 4-million-year period centred on 54 Ma, there were 10 reversals; at around 42 Ma, 17 reversals took place in the span of 3 million years. In a period of 3 million years centering on 24 Ma, 13 reversals occurred. 51 reversals occurred in a 12-million-year period, centering on 15 million years ago. These eras of frequent reversals have been counterbalanced by a few "superchrons" or long periods when no reversals took place. It was generally assumed that the frequency of geomagnetic reversals was random until 2006 when a team of physicists at the University of Calabria found that the reversals conform to a Lévy distribution, which describes stochastic processes with long-ranging correlations between events in time’.
Some other Planetary and Solar Polar Reversals and their Effects.
Other celestial bodies also have geomagnetic forces, fields and reversing poles. Mars apparently experienced a magnetic crisis four billion years ago and has been devoid of a magnetic field, an appreciable atmosphere, and possibly of life ever since. The Sun also does a magnetic pole reversal approximately every 11 years, usually at the peak of each sunspot cycle. The next one is hypothesized to be due in 2012, hence probably the sudden recent increase in solar flares which have been affecting satellite communications, in preparation for the next solar polar ‘flip’.
In comparison to the Sun, the Earth pole reversals are far less frequent, however the current magnetic force field appears to be weakening and this weakening effect is often hypothesized to precede a geomagnetic pole reversal event on Earth. The most visible signs of Earth's magnetic field are auroras, which are caused by charged particles from space interacting with the atmosphere as they flow into the north and south magnetic poles.
Figure 1. An Aurora
Effects of the Geomagnetic Force.
The geomagnetic force protects the planet from the lethal effects of solar winds, radiation and cosmic rays and supports and maintains the location of the north and south poles. The weakening of the Earth's magnetic field has been happening for 2000 years, some scientists claim and in the past 20 years the magnetic field has become so erratic and unstable that airport and aeroplane equipment has needed to be readjusted for this change in the Earth's geomagnetic field behavior.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field is in a constant state of change, according to researchers like scientist Larry Newitt of the Geological Survey of Canada who regularly goes hunting with a compass for his quarry, which is Earth's north magnetic pole, which is then usually found in an increasingly distant new location from the last record taken. Scientists have known for some time that the magnetic poles move. James Ross first located the north pole in 1831 after an epic arctic journey during which his ship became icebound for four years. No one returned to the north pole again until the next century when in 1904, Roald Amundsen found the current north pole and discovered that it had moved at least 50 kilometres from the original site moving then at an average of less than 1 kilometre per year.
The pole kept moving slowly northwards during the 20th century, at an increasing average speed of 10 km per year, but lately in the 21st century it has been accelerating and relocating at a new average of more than 50 kilometres per year. At this rate it will soon exit North America and reach Siberia if it doesn’t 'flip' beforehand.
The Earth's magnetic field is changing in other ways too. Compass needles in Africa are drifting about 1 degree per decade. And globally the magnetic field has weakened 10% since the 19th century. After a meeting of the American Geophysical Union, many newspapers carried the story "Is Earth's magnetic field collapsing?" However, according to a more optimistic scientist Gary Glatzmaier of the University of California at Santa Cruz, ‘the ongoing 10% decline doesn't mean that a reversal is imminent. "The field is increasing or decreasing all the time," he says. "We know this from studies of the paleomagnetic record." Earth's present-day magnetic field is, in fact, much stronger than normal. The dipole moment, a measure of the intensity of the magnetic field, is now 8 x 1022 amps x m2. That's twice the million-year average of 4 x 1022 amps x m2'.
It has also been suggested that this ongoing weakening of the geomagnetic force may be correlated to some of the climate change effects that we are already experiencing, as it has also been hypothesized that drastic changes in the Earth’s magnetic field could cause tectonic plates to shift and move, trigger earthquakes and volcanic activity, and cause massive storms on the surface of the Earth, while the weather patterns are in the process of readjusting.
Evidence of a Declining Geomagnetic Force and Past Polar Reversals.
The evidence of a declining geomagnetic force field is apparently recorded in every clay dish that has ever been fired on this planet. During this process the iron minerals in the clay record the exact state of Earth's magnetic field at the time it was baked. Pots from ancient to modern times reveal just how dramatically this field has changed and show that there has been a rapid fall in recent years. The rate of change is also higher in these clay dishes over the last 20 years than it has been for any time in the past 5,000 years. The evidence is that the earth’s geomagnetic force is going from a strong field down to a weak field, and that it's doing this very rapidly.
Further evidence of geomagnetic pole reversal and a weakening geomagnetic force can be found in several locations on the ocean floor, including one that bisects the Atlantic Ocean, these are called Oceanic Ridges or Rifts and are located where the sea floor is being forced apart. Magma, which contains iron, erupts as lava on to the ocean floor and as it solidifies it is quickly magnetized in the directions of the magnetic poles. The extent and direction that it is magnetized can then be easily measured.
Scientists studying the magma on the ocean floor on either side of the ridges or rifts found that periodically, the iron components were magnetized in an opposite direction and that since the magnetizing relied upon the magnetic properties of the north and south magnetic poles, it was concluded that also periodically, in a time frame that has been measured at being about ten millennium, the poles reverse, just as they do on the sun but in a much shorter time frame. These same scientists claim that the last reversal occurred about 11,500 years ago.
There is further hypothetical evidence that we are already in the transition phase that precedes a polar reversal as shown in the growing areas of magnetic anomaly, field lines that are moving the wrong way and signaling an ever weaker and chaotic state for our protective magnetosphere shield. NASA has verified that there is evidence of a positive magnetism energy at the south pole, which is normally supposed to exist in the north pole only. The South pole is supposed to only have a negative magnetic charge. In the past 150 years, it has also been claimed that there has been a migration between the north and south poles and their respective magnetic charges of positive and negative magnetic reversal.
According to a report issued by the British Geological Survey (BGS), there is evidence to suggest that the magnetic reversal has begun. The BGS has taken this position after careful analysis of a region of the Earth known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). It's an area where the magnetic field is in a state of flux and has weakened noticeably. The data shows the anomaly is growing rapidly and spreading west from South Africa, indicating that the Earth's liquid core is changing. "This may be early evidence of a forthcoming reversal in the direction of the Earth’s internal magnetic field," states the article on the BGS website.
Geomagnetic Models
Several scientists have attempted to create models to simulate the workings of Earth’s geomagnetic fields and her geomagnetic poles. Physicist Dan Lathrop re-created the molten iron dynamo at Earth's core by using 240 pounds of highly explosive molten sodium in 1995. In probably a slightly less risky model, Gary Glatzmaier and Paul Roberts have created a computer simulation called the ‘geodynamo’ that not only creates a self-sustaining magnetic field which was the first to do this, but after simulating the passage of 36,000 years, the field it generated spontaneously flipped. You can view the animation generated by the Glatzmaier-Roberts computer model and see what hypothetically happens during a reversal at http://es.ucsc.edu/~glatz/geodynamo.html
Glatzmaier and Roberts claim that ‘The resulting three-dimensional numerical simulation of the geodynamo, run on parallel supercomputers at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, now spans more than 300,000 years. The simulated magnetic field has an intensity and a dipole dominated structure that is very similar to the Earth's (Figure 2) and a westward drift of the non-dipolar structures of the field at the surface that is essentially the same as the 0.2 degrees/year measured on the Earth. Our solution illustrates how the influence of the Earth's rotation on convection in the fluid outer core is responsible for this magnetic field structure and time dependence’.
Figure 2.
‘A snapshot of the 3D magnetic field structure simulated with the Glatzmaier-Roberts geodynamo model. Magnetic field lines are blue where the field is directed inward and yellow where directed outward. The rotation axis of the model Earth is vertical and through the center. A transition occurs at the core-mantle boundary from the intense, complicated field structure in the fluid core, where the field is generated, to the smooth, potential field structure outside the core. The field lines are drawn out to two Earth radii. Magnetic field is rapped around the "tangent cylinder" due to the shear of the zonal fluid flow’.
Causes of Geomagnetic Pole Reversal
Scientific opinion is divided on what hypothetically causes geomagnetic pole reversals and flips. Some theories hypothesize that they are due to events internal to the system, that generate the Earth's magnetic field, others propose that they are due to external events.
Internal Events
According to Wikipedia ‘Many scientists believe that reversals are an inherent aspect of the dynamo theory of how the geomagnetic field is generated. In simulations, it is observed that magnetic field lines can sometimes become tangled and disorganized through the chaotic motions of liquid metal in the Earth's core. During these periods, the direction and magnitude of the magnetic field observed at any point on the surface fluctuate, and net field strength is reduced by dipole-dipole interactions’.‘In some simulations, this leads to an instability in which the magnetic field spontaneously flips over into the opposite orientation. This scenario is supported by observations of the solar magnetic field, which undergoes spontaneous reversals every 9–12 years. However, with the sun it is observed that the solar magnetic intensity greatly increases during a reversal, whereas all reversals on Earth seem to occur during periods of low field strength’.
External Events
Wikipedia also claims that ‘Some scientists, such as Richard A. Muller, believe that geomagnetic reversals are not spontaneous processes but rather are triggered by external events which directly disrupt the flow in the Earth's core. Such processes may include the arrival of continental slabs carried down into the mantle by the action of plate tectonics at subduction zones, the initiation of new mantle plumes from the core-mantle boundary, and possibly mantle-core shear forces resulting from very large impact events. Supporters of this theory hold that any of these events could lead to a large scale disruption of the dynamo, effectively turning off the geomagnetic field. Because the magnetic field is stable in either the present North-South orientation or a reversed orientation, they propose that when the field recovers from such a disruption it spontaneously chooses one state or the other, such that a recovery is seen as a reversal in about half of all cases’.
My Own Hypothesis (My now defunct hypothesis below was temporarily removed but has now been reinserted between the brackets and in italic font, simply to help lessen any confusion to readers of the comments section at the end of this blog, which has references to this hypothesis).
My laywoman’s hypothesis or speculation is probably unfounded because the combined masses and production rates of neutrinos and the amount of energy involved in powering these nuclear reactor, neutrino and collider experiments, is probably negligible in comparison to the enormous energies and masses believed to be involved in sustaining the Earth’s geomagnetic force. These worldwide nuclear reactor, collider and neutrino experiments are hopefully not influencing the current decline in the Earth’s geomagnetic force or the movement of the poles, even though recently a revised calculation suggests that around 3% of particles 'go missing' from all nuclear reactor experiments, see 'The amazing disappearing antineutrino' and 'The Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly' paper at http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1101/1101.2755v4.pdf
Just for the record here is my hypothesis:-
[I have my own rather worrying and hopefully completely unfounded hypothesis that the sudden increase in north and south pole relocating movement since the 1980s and the increasingly weakening geomagnetic force may also somehow be related to the corresponding increased generation of relatively new non-extraterrestrial missing energy in the form of unidentified particles that are being created in nuclear reactors, particle accelerators and collidor experiments which are increasingly taking place around the world since the 1980’s and which did not occur much before.
Prior to this the Earth’s geomagnetic force has protected the inner and outer cores from similar extra-terrestrial energies and particles before they were created beneath her protective magnetosphere shield in these Earth-bound experiments. These experiments may even possibly be creating significant quantities of the hypothetical 4th generation massive sterile neutrinos as they travel oscillating their way through the Earth while possibly being altered by the MSW or ‘matter effect’ resonance, interacting only with gravity and other neutrinos and therefore potentially interacting with the Earth’s inner and outer cores’ geomagnetic force fields in some unknown manner.
Wikipedia claims that 'Sterile neutrinos would still interact via gravity, so if they are heavy enough, they could explain cold dark matter or warm dark matter. Sterile neutrinos may also mix with ordinary neutrinos via a Dirac mass. The sterile neutrinos and ordinary neutrinos may also have Majorana masses. In certain models, both Dirac and Majorana masses are used in a seesaw mechanism, which drives ordinary neutrino masses down and makes the sterile neutrinos much heavier than the Standard Model interacting neutrinos. In some models the heavy neutrinos can be as heavy as the GUT scale (~1015 GeV)'.
Wikipedia gives many examples of large experimental particle laboratories , nuclear reactors and neutrino experiments that are possibly generating significant amounts of this type missing energy and unidentified particles. These include the Large Hadron Particle Collidor (LHC) and OPERA at CERN in Geneva, the Brookhaven National Laboratory Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) which collides heavy ions such as gold ions and polarized protons. The DESY at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk, Russia. The Hadron Elektron Ring Anlage (HERA) in Hamburg, Germany, which collides electrons and positrons with protons. MINOS at Fermilab, in Batavia, United States which also has the Tevatron, which collides protons and antiprotons and was the highest energy particle collider in the world until the Large Hadron Collider surpassed it on 29 November 2009. KEK, in Tsukuba, Japan which has K2K, a neutrino oscillation experiment and Belle, an experiment measuring the CP violation of B mesons. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, United States has PEP-II, which collides electrons and positrons. Many more particle accelerators also exist on the planet.]
What will happen if a Polar Flip Occurs?
Beyond knowing that pole reversal happens, little is known or certain about the process or what will happen when it does occur next and what signs will precede such an event, so it isn’t easy to scientifically predict when it will happen and what will happen when it does. It has been claimed that just prior to, and just after some pole reversals in the past, there has been evidence of a disruption to plant and animal species and of rapid climate changes. Wikipedia points out that ‘Homo erectus and their ancestors certainly(?) survived many previous reversals, though they did not depend on computer systems that could be damaged by large coronal mass ejections’.
At the time of one of the hypothetized reversals 11,000 years ago, our planet was ‘locked in an ice age, with great ice sheets that covered most of the globe and immediately afterward, the ice started to recede rapidly, a condition that continues today’. It has been hypothesized that Woolly mammoths went extinct when the Gothenburg magnetic reversal occurred some 11,500 years ago and that the Earth collapsed into a catastrophic Ice Age when the Mono Lake magnetic reversal took place 23,000 years ago. Did Non-anthropogenic Climate Change cause Neanderthal extinction 30,000 years ago when he encountered climate change caused by a geomagnetic pole reversal?
Some hypotheses suggest that the effects of the pole reversal may have terrible consequences in a short period, and others predict that it may be more gentle and take more than a hundred years, if it happens over a longer period. Since human beings have never been through a pole shift that they know of in our recorded history, no one really knows how a pole shift is going to work or what the results will be. Geophysicist Rob Coe of the University of California at Santa Cruz, may have however found a lava record in Oregon that charts magnetic mayhem that ensued during a previous period of reversal. Without a doubt GPS satellite and navigation systems all over the planet would become chaotic.
If a pole shift does take place, some hypothesize that the axis and magnetism of Earth would also be changed, the poles would flip and reverse so that the south pole has a positive magnetic charge instead of a negative magnetic charge, and the north pole has a negative magnetic charge instead of the positive magnetic charge it now has.
I think that possibly the worst outcome predicted as a hypothetical possibility that I have read, is that the geomagnetic force and consequently the protective magnetosphere breaks up into multiple haphazard poles or even ceases to exist altogether for a period of time and the sun's radiation, solar winds and cosmic rays have no obstacle to shield them from reaching some parts of the planet, causing the surface of the Earth to possibly become temporarily uninhabitable. Without this protection hypothetically many plants might not be able to grow, animals could die, and so possibly could any humans who were left on the surface. Let’s hope that these hypothetical worst case scenarios are wrong, if however they turn out to be right then those old mines, underground caves and railway lines and nuclear bunkers may come in very handy.
Internet References
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1101/1101.2755v1.pdf
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1101/1101.2755v4.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal
http://es.ucsc.edu/~glatz/geodynamo.html
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/highlights/southAtlantic2010.html
http://www.helium.com/items/2093767-scientists-magnetic-polar-reversal-m...
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/29dec_magneticfield.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110401/full/news.2011.202.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/about.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/reversals.html
Unfortunately, it seems to me, as only an interested laywoman and a Science2.0 blogger who is definitely not an expert on this subject, that there are few scientific experts in this field who appear to be able to confidently and convincingly answer these controversial questions. This may be because there are so many conflicting hypotheses surrounding the subject, a lack of conclusive data and a lot of speculation, which I am now also contributing to with this blog.
However, one thing is apparent to me, most of the ‘experts’ seem to agree that we are overdue for a geomagnetic pole reversal and that there are even signs that this has already started to happen. Is it possible then that scientists and politicians are not eager to share the fact that no one is really sure about what will happen as the magnetic field weakens, shifts and then flips?
My admittedly rather limited internet research indicates that no one really knows for sure why and when these pole reversals have happened in the past, what exactly their effects were or even when they will happen next and what the effects will be then, but that there are definitely plenty of conflicting hypotheses, all of which are not easy to test and prove for obvious reasons.
The History of Polar Reversals and Shifts
Some geophysicists claim that the process of magnetic pole shift takes hundreds of thousands of years and that it is 750,000 years since the last magnetic pole reversal occurred within an approximately 200,000 year cycle. Others hypothesize a much shorter 10,000 year cycle, and claim that the last reversal occurred about 11,500 years ago, and that there is evidence of a correlation between reversals and leaps in evolution, driven by the resulting radiation exposure resulting from a damaged geomagnetic field or magnetosphere, that usually protects us living organisms from the solar radiation that can cause cancer and mutate our DNA.
How the Geomagnetic Force is thought to work.
Apparently in the center of our planet Earth there resides a spinning solid iron ball, which researchers call the ‘inner core’. The ball is about the same temperature as the surface of the sun at approximately 5778 K (5505 °C) and it is like a world within a world or maybe even like a heart within a living body. The inner core is 70% as wide as the moon and spins at its own rate, faster than the Earth above it. This ball or ‘inner core’ is surrounded by its own molten ocean which is a very deep layer of liquid iron called ‘the outer core’. The Earth's magnetic field apparently originates from this ocean of molten iron, an electrically conducting fluid which is in constant motion. This liquid ‘outer core’ seethes and surges like a stormy sea, with currents and whirlpools powered by the Coriolis forces of Earth's rotation and these complex motions and interactions supposedly generate the geomagnetic field and the resulting magnetosphere through a process called the ‘dynamo effect’.
It is believed that the convection in the fluid outer core is driven by thermal and compositional buoyancy sources at the boundary between the inner and outer cores, which are produced by the effect of the Earth slowly cooling and the iron in the iron-rich fluid alloy solidifying onto the inner core creating latent heat and the light constituent of the alloy. These buoyancy forces then cause fluid to rise and Coriolis forces, due to the Earth's rotation, cause helical fluid flows. This fluid motion, like waves and currents in an ocean, apparently twists and shears the magnetic field, at the same time as it generates a new magnetic field to replace the current geomagnetic force as it diffuses away.
Evidence of Past Polar Reversals.
Paleomagnetic records indicate that the geomagnetic field has existed for at least three billion years and that if it were not being continually regenerated, it would probably have decayed after 20,000 years, as the temperature of the core is too high to sustain permanent magnetism on its own. Paleomagnetic records also show that the dipole polarity of this geomagnetic field has reversed many times in the past, in other words the north and south poles have already repeatedly reversed or ‘flipped’ and the mean time between reversals is roughly 200,000 years with individual reversal events often taking only a couple thousand years and occasionally possibly even much less time to occur. These ‘mean’ statistics may be a bit misleading though, if the ‘flips’ have occurred randomly over that period and according to Wikipedia the rate of reversals in the Earth's magnetic field has varied widely over time.
Wikipedia claims that ‘72 million years ago (Ma), the field reversed 5 times in a million years. In a 4-million-year period centred on 54 Ma, there were 10 reversals; at around 42 Ma, 17 reversals took place in the span of 3 million years. In a period of 3 million years centering on 24 Ma, 13 reversals occurred. 51 reversals occurred in a 12-million-year period, centering on 15 million years ago. These eras of frequent reversals have been counterbalanced by a few "superchrons" or long periods when no reversals took place. It was generally assumed that the frequency of geomagnetic reversals was random until 2006 when a team of physicists at the University of Calabria found that the reversals conform to a Lévy distribution, which describes stochastic processes with long-ranging correlations between events in time’.
Some other Planetary and Solar Polar Reversals and their Effects.
Other celestial bodies also have geomagnetic forces, fields and reversing poles. Mars apparently experienced a magnetic crisis four billion years ago and has been devoid of a magnetic field, an appreciable atmosphere, and possibly of life ever since. The Sun also does a magnetic pole reversal approximately every 11 years, usually at the peak of each sunspot cycle. The next one is hypothesized to be due in 2012, hence probably the sudden recent increase in solar flares which have been affecting satellite communications, in preparation for the next solar polar ‘flip’.
In comparison to the Sun, the Earth pole reversals are far less frequent, however the current magnetic force field appears to be weakening and this weakening effect is often hypothesized to precede a geomagnetic pole reversal event on Earth. The most visible signs of Earth's magnetic field are auroras, which are caused by charged particles from space interacting with the atmosphere as they flow into the north and south magnetic poles.
Figure 1. An Aurora
Effects of the Geomagnetic Force.
The geomagnetic force protects the planet from the lethal effects of solar winds, radiation and cosmic rays and supports and maintains the location of the north and south poles. The weakening of the Earth's magnetic field has been happening for 2000 years, some scientists claim and in the past 20 years the magnetic field has become so erratic and unstable that airport and aeroplane equipment has needed to be readjusted for this change in the Earth's geomagnetic field behavior.
The Earth’s geomagnetic field is in a constant state of change, according to researchers like scientist Larry Newitt of the Geological Survey of Canada who regularly goes hunting with a compass for his quarry, which is Earth's north magnetic pole, which is then usually found in an increasingly distant new location from the last record taken. Scientists have known for some time that the magnetic poles move. James Ross first located the north pole in 1831 after an epic arctic journey during which his ship became icebound for four years. No one returned to the north pole again until the next century when in 1904, Roald Amundsen found the current north pole and discovered that it had moved at least 50 kilometres from the original site moving then at an average of less than 1 kilometre per year.
The pole kept moving slowly northwards during the 20th century, at an increasing average speed of 10 km per year, but lately in the 21st century it has been accelerating and relocating at a new average of more than 50 kilometres per year. At this rate it will soon exit North America and reach Siberia if it doesn’t 'flip' beforehand.
The Earth's magnetic field is changing in other ways too. Compass needles in Africa are drifting about 1 degree per decade. And globally the magnetic field has weakened 10% since the 19th century. After a meeting of the American Geophysical Union, many newspapers carried the story "Is Earth's magnetic field collapsing?" However, according to a more optimistic scientist Gary Glatzmaier of the University of California at Santa Cruz, ‘the ongoing 10% decline doesn't mean that a reversal is imminent. "The field is increasing or decreasing all the time," he says. "We know this from studies of the paleomagnetic record." Earth's present-day magnetic field is, in fact, much stronger than normal. The dipole moment, a measure of the intensity of the magnetic field, is now 8 x 1022 amps x m2. That's twice the million-year average of 4 x 1022 amps x m2'.
It has also been suggested that this ongoing weakening of the geomagnetic force may be correlated to some of the climate change effects that we are already experiencing, as it has also been hypothesized that drastic changes in the Earth’s magnetic field could cause tectonic plates to shift and move, trigger earthquakes and volcanic activity, and cause massive storms on the surface of the Earth, while the weather patterns are in the process of readjusting.
Evidence of a Declining Geomagnetic Force and Past Polar Reversals.
The evidence of a declining geomagnetic force field is apparently recorded in every clay dish that has ever been fired on this planet. During this process the iron minerals in the clay record the exact state of Earth's magnetic field at the time it was baked. Pots from ancient to modern times reveal just how dramatically this field has changed and show that there has been a rapid fall in recent years. The rate of change is also higher in these clay dishes over the last 20 years than it has been for any time in the past 5,000 years. The evidence is that the earth’s geomagnetic force is going from a strong field down to a weak field, and that it's doing this very rapidly.
Further evidence of geomagnetic pole reversal and a weakening geomagnetic force can be found in several locations on the ocean floor, including one that bisects the Atlantic Ocean, these are called Oceanic Ridges or Rifts and are located where the sea floor is being forced apart. Magma, which contains iron, erupts as lava on to the ocean floor and as it solidifies it is quickly magnetized in the directions of the magnetic poles. The extent and direction that it is magnetized can then be easily measured.
Scientists studying the magma on the ocean floor on either side of the ridges or rifts found that periodically, the iron components were magnetized in an opposite direction and that since the magnetizing relied upon the magnetic properties of the north and south magnetic poles, it was concluded that also periodically, in a time frame that has been measured at being about ten millennium, the poles reverse, just as they do on the sun but in a much shorter time frame. These same scientists claim that the last reversal occurred about 11,500 years ago.
There is further hypothetical evidence that we are already in the transition phase that precedes a polar reversal as shown in the growing areas of magnetic anomaly, field lines that are moving the wrong way and signaling an ever weaker and chaotic state for our protective magnetosphere shield. NASA has verified that there is evidence of a positive magnetism energy at the south pole, which is normally supposed to exist in the north pole only. The South pole is supposed to only have a negative magnetic charge. In the past 150 years, it has also been claimed that there has been a migration between the north and south poles and their respective magnetic charges of positive and negative magnetic reversal.
According to a report issued by the British Geological Survey (BGS), there is evidence to suggest that the magnetic reversal has begun. The BGS has taken this position after careful analysis of a region of the Earth known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). It's an area where the magnetic field is in a state of flux and has weakened noticeably. The data shows the anomaly is growing rapidly and spreading west from South Africa, indicating that the Earth's liquid core is changing. "This may be early evidence of a forthcoming reversal in the direction of the Earth’s internal magnetic field," states the article on the BGS website.
Geomagnetic Models
Several scientists have attempted to create models to simulate the workings of Earth’s geomagnetic fields and her geomagnetic poles. Physicist Dan Lathrop re-created the molten iron dynamo at Earth's core by using 240 pounds of highly explosive molten sodium in 1995. In probably a slightly less risky model, Gary Glatzmaier and Paul Roberts have created a computer simulation called the ‘geodynamo’ that not only creates a self-sustaining magnetic field which was the first to do this, but after simulating the passage of 36,000 years, the field it generated spontaneously flipped. You can view the animation generated by the Glatzmaier-Roberts computer model and see what hypothetically happens during a reversal at http://es.ucsc.edu/~glatz/geodynamo.html
Glatzmaier and Roberts claim that ‘The resulting three-dimensional numerical simulation of the geodynamo, run on parallel supercomputers at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, now spans more than 300,000 years. The simulated magnetic field has an intensity and a dipole dominated structure that is very similar to the Earth's (Figure 2) and a westward drift of the non-dipolar structures of the field at the surface that is essentially the same as the 0.2 degrees/year measured on the Earth. Our solution illustrates how the influence of the Earth's rotation on convection in the fluid outer core is responsible for this magnetic field structure and time dependence’.
Figure 2.
‘A snapshot of the 3D magnetic field structure simulated with the Glatzmaier-Roberts geodynamo model. Magnetic field lines are blue where the field is directed inward and yellow where directed outward. The rotation axis of the model Earth is vertical and through the center. A transition occurs at the core-mantle boundary from the intense, complicated field structure in the fluid core, where the field is generated, to the smooth, potential field structure outside the core. The field lines are drawn out to two Earth radii. Magnetic field is rapped around the "tangent cylinder" due to the shear of the zonal fluid flow’.
Causes of Geomagnetic Pole Reversal
Scientific opinion is divided on what hypothetically causes geomagnetic pole reversals and flips. Some theories hypothesize that they are due to events internal to the system, that generate the Earth's magnetic field, others propose that they are due to external events.
Internal Events
According to Wikipedia ‘Many scientists believe that reversals are an inherent aspect of the dynamo theory of how the geomagnetic field is generated. In simulations, it is observed that magnetic field lines can sometimes become tangled and disorganized through the chaotic motions of liquid metal in the Earth's core. During these periods, the direction and magnitude of the magnetic field observed at any point on the surface fluctuate, and net field strength is reduced by dipole-dipole interactions’.‘In some simulations, this leads to an instability in which the magnetic field spontaneously flips over into the opposite orientation. This scenario is supported by observations of the solar magnetic field, which undergoes spontaneous reversals every 9–12 years. However, with the sun it is observed that the solar magnetic intensity greatly increases during a reversal, whereas all reversals on Earth seem to occur during periods of low field strength’.
External Events
Wikipedia also claims that ‘Some scientists, such as Richard A. Muller, believe that geomagnetic reversals are not spontaneous processes but rather are triggered by external events which directly disrupt the flow in the Earth's core. Such processes may include the arrival of continental slabs carried down into the mantle by the action of plate tectonics at subduction zones, the initiation of new mantle plumes from the core-mantle boundary, and possibly mantle-core shear forces resulting from very large impact events. Supporters of this theory hold that any of these events could lead to a large scale disruption of the dynamo, effectively turning off the geomagnetic field. Because the magnetic field is stable in either the present North-South orientation or a reversed orientation, they propose that when the field recovers from such a disruption it spontaneously chooses one state or the other, such that a recovery is seen as a reversal in about half of all cases’.
My Own Hypothesis (My now defunct hypothesis below was temporarily removed but has now been reinserted between the brackets and in italic font, simply to help lessen any confusion to readers of the comments section at the end of this blog, which has references to this hypothesis).
My laywoman’s hypothesis or speculation is probably unfounded because the combined masses and production rates of neutrinos and the amount of energy involved in powering these nuclear reactor, neutrino and collider experiments, is probably negligible in comparison to the enormous energies and masses believed to be involved in sustaining the Earth’s geomagnetic force. These worldwide nuclear reactor, collider and neutrino experiments are hopefully not influencing the current decline in the Earth’s geomagnetic force or the movement of the poles, even though recently a revised calculation suggests that around 3% of particles 'go missing' from all nuclear reactor experiments, see 'The amazing disappearing antineutrino' and 'The Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly' paper at http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1101/1101.2755v4.pdf
Just for the record here is my hypothesis:-
[I have my own rather worrying and hopefully completely unfounded hypothesis that the sudden increase in north and south pole relocating movement since the 1980s and the increasingly weakening geomagnetic force may also somehow be related to the corresponding increased generation of relatively new non-extraterrestrial missing energy in the form of unidentified particles that are being created in nuclear reactors, particle accelerators and collidor experiments which are increasingly taking place around the world since the 1980’s and which did not occur much before.
Prior to this the Earth’s geomagnetic force has protected the inner and outer cores from similar extra-terrestrial energies and particles before they were created beneath her protective magnetosphere shield in these Earth-bound experiments. These experiments may even possibly be creating significant quantities of the hypothetical 4th generation massive sterile neutrinos as they travel oscillating their way through the Earth while possibly being altered by the MSW or ‘matter effect’ resonance, interacting only with gravity and other neutrinos and therefore potentially interacting with the Earth’s inner and outer cores’ geomagnetic force fields in some unknown manner.
Wikipedia claims that 'Sterile neutrinos would still interact via gravity, so if they are heavy enough, they could explain cold dark matter or warm dark matter. Sterile neutrinos may also mix with ordinary neutrinos via a Dirac mass. The sterile neutrinos and ordinary neutrinos may also have Majorana masses. In certain models, both Dirac and Majorana masses are used in a seesaw mechanism, which drives ordinary neutrino masses down and makes the sterile neutrinos much heavier than the Standard Model interacting neutrinos. In some models the heavy neutrinos can be as heavy as the GUT scale (~1015 GeV)'.
Wikipedia gives many examples of large experimental particle laboratories , nuclear reactors and neutrino experiments that are possibly generating significant amounts of this type missing energy and unidentified particles. These include the Large Hadron Particle Collidor (LHC) and OPERA at CERN in Geneva, the Brookhaven National Laboratory Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) which collides heavy ions such as gold ions and polarized protons. The DESY at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk, Russia. The Hadron Elektron Ring Anlage (HERA) in Hamburg, Germany, which collides electrons and positrons with protons. MINOS at Fermilab, in Batavia, United States which also has the Tevatron, which collides protons and antiprotons and was the highest energy particle collider in the world until the Large Hadron Collider surpassed it on 29 November 2009. KEK, in Tsukuba, Japan which has K2K, a neutrino oscillation experiment and Belle, an experiment measuring the CP violation of B mesons. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, United States has PEP-II, which collides electrons and positrons. Many more particle accelerators also exist on the planet.]
What will happen if a Polar Flip Occurs?
Beyond knowing that pole reversal happens, little is known or certain about the process or what will happen when it does occur next and what signs will precede such an event, so it isn’t easy to scientifically predict when it will happen and what will happen when it does. It has been claimed that just prior to, and just after some pole reversals in the past, there has been evidence of a disruption to plant and animal species and of rapid climate changes. Wikipedia points out that ‘Homo erectus and their ancestors certainly(?) survived many previous reversals, though they did not depend on computer systems that could be damaged by large coronal mass ejections’.
At the time of one of the hypothetized reversals 11,000 years ago, our planet was ‘locked in an ice age, with great ice sheets that covered most of the globe and immediately afterward, the ice started to recede rapidly, a condition that continues today’. It has been hypothesized that Woolly mammoths went extinct when the Gothenburg magnetic reversal occurred some 11,500 years ago and that the Earth collapsed into a catastrophic Ice Age when the Mono Lake magnetic reversal took place 23,000 years ago. Did Non-anthropogenic Climate Change cause Neanderthal extinction 30,000 years ago when he encountered climate change caused by a geomagnetic pole reversal?
Some hypotheses suggest that the effects of the pole reversal may have terrible consequences in a short period, and others predict that it may be more gentle and take more than a hundred years, if it happens over a longer period. Since human beings have never been through a pole shift that they know of in our recorded history, no one really knows how a pole shift is going to work or what the results will be. Geophysicist Rob Coe of the University of California at Santa Cruz, may have however found a lava record in Oregon that charts magnetic mayhem that ensued during a previous period of reversal. Without a doubt GPS satellite and navigation systems all over the planet would become chaotic.
If a pole shift does take place, some hypothesize that the axis and magnetism of Earth would also be changed, the poles would flip and reverse so that the south pole has a positive magnetic charge instead of a negative magnetic charge, and the north pole has a negative magnetic charge instead of the positive magnetic charge it now has.
I think that possibly the worst outcome predicted as a hypothetical possibility that I have read, is that the geomagnetic force and consequently the protective magnetosphere breaks up into multiple haphazard poles or even ceases to exist altogether for a period of time and the sun's radiation, solar winds and cosmic rays have no obstacle to shield them from reaching some parts of the planet, causing the surface of the Earth to possibly become temporarily uninhabitable. Without this protection hypothetically many plants might not be able to grow, animals could die, and so possibly could any humans who were left on the surface. Let’s hope that these hypothetical worst case scenarios are wrong, if however they turn out to be right then those old mines, underground caves and railway lines and nuclear bunkers may come in very handy.
Internet References
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1101/1101.2755v1.pdf
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1101/1101.2755v4.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal
http://es.ucsc.edu/~glatz/geodynamo.html
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/highlights/southAtlantic2010.html
http://www.helium.com/items/2093767-scientists-magnetic-polar-reversal-m...
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/29dec_magneticfield.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110401/full/news.2011.202.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/about.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/reversals.html
North Magnetic Pole Moving Due to Core Flux
Blue lines show Earth's northern magnetic field and the magnetic north pole in an artist's rendering.
for National Geographic News
December 24, 2009
Earth's north magnetic pole is racing toward Russia at almost 40 miles (64 kilometers) a year due to magnetic changes in the planet's core, new research says.The core is too deep for scientists to directly detect its magnetic field. But researchers can infer the field's movements by tracking how Earth's magnetic field has been changing at the surface and in space.
Now, newly analyzed data suggest that there's a region of rapidly changing magnetism on the core's surface, possibly being created by a mysterious "plume" of magnetism arising from deeper in the core.
And it's this region that could be pulling the magnetic pole away from its long-time location in northern Canada, said Arnaud Chulliat, a geophysicist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France.
Finding North
Magnetic north, which is the place where compass needles actually point, is near but not exactly in the same place as the geographic North Pole. Right now, magnetic north is close to Canada's Ellesmere Island.
Navigators have used magnetic north for centuries to orient themselves when they're far from recognizable landmarks.
Although global positioning systems have largely replaced such traditional techniques, many people still find compasses useful for getting around underwater and underground where GPS satellites can't communicate.
The magnetic north pole had moved little from the time scientists first located it in 1831. Then in 1904, the pole began shifting northeastward at a steady pace of about 9 miles (15 kilometers) a year.
In 1989 it sped up again, and in 2007 scientists confirmed that the pole is now galloping toward Siberia at 34 to 37 miles (55 to 60 kilometers) a year.
A rapidly shifting magnetic pole means that magnetic-field maps need to be updated more often to allow compass users to make the crucial adjustment from magnetic north to true North.
Wandering Pole
Geologists think Earth has a magnetic field because the core is made up of a solid iron center surrounded by rapidly spinning liquid metal. This creates a "dynamo" that drives our magnetic field.
(Get more facts about Earth's insides.)
Scientists had long suspected that, since the molten core is constantly moving, changes in its magnetism might be affecting the surface location of magnetic north.
Although the new research seems to back up this idea, Chulliat is not ready to say whether magnetic north will eventually cross into Russia.
"It's too difficult to forecast," Chulliat said.
Also, nobody knows when another change in the core might pop up elsewhere, sending magnetic north wandering in a new direction.
Chulliat presented his work this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Magnetic Pole Reversal and Disaster Planning
Earth may be in the early stages of a magnetic pole reversal as we speak, at least that's what an article from LiveScience suggests. LiveScience asserted that, based upon geologic records, there have been several flip-flops of the Earth's magnetic field
and the last actual magnetic pole reversal on our planet occurred about
780,000 years ago. If we are indeed in the midst of a pole reversal
right now, it means that currently, the magnetic field
may be weaker due to the transition. The weakening of the Earth's
magnetic field can create some disastrous scenarios but perhaps not what
most would expect.
* There are plenty of theories -- many valid, many crackpot science -- about pole reversal effects upon the Earth. From tectonic plates dramatically crashing and creating megaquakes to supervolcanoes waking up and everything in between.
* The theory that pole shift will cause massive earthquakes around the world does not jive with known scientific findings. According to the USGS, there is no evidence to support the idea that magnetic field variations accompany seismic activity.
* According to studies cited by LiveScience, though, the most likely disastrous effects we would see during the process of realignment when the magnetic field is weaker would be medical, ecological and technological.
* Technologically, the weakening of the magnetic field in the midst of pole reversal can be disastrous. Imagine massive solar storms bombarding the Earth and a magnetic field too weak to protect us. What happens when strong solar storms hit? Radio blackouts, communication interruptions and on a large scale, fried technology, leaving a technology-dependent world in the Dark Ages. Imagine it -- dead satellites, fried electrical grids, no Internet, no cell phone service; it might not equal doomsday but for a society that lives and breathes technology, it would seem as though the world had ended.
* As far as disaster planning goes, preparing for a technological
emergency would require basic planning for a power outage or electrical
blackout.
* According to FEMA's ready.gov website,
preparing for a blackout requires preparing an emergency kit and a plan
for family communication and how family members should meet up if they
are separated. When planning for a power outage, be sure to include
extra flashlights and batteries in your emergency kit as well as a
battery-operated or hand crank radio to listen for instructions. One
important tip for planning ahead for a power outage is to always have
cash on hand and a half tank of gas in your car. Gas pumps and ATMs
require electricity. Most store cash registers are electricity- and
computer-driven so the need for cash is especially necessary to procure
goods during a blackout.
* Emergency preparation and disaster planning should be a regular part
of daily life. Whether the magnetic poles reverse or not, there will
continue to be earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and other
natural disasters. Being prepared with a plan, emergency supplies and
the knowledge of how to handle whatever comes is the best practice. Check out fema.gov
for tips on disaster planning. Even though FEMA doesn't offer specific
tips for pole shift preparation, emergency preparedness can be adapted
for any disaster.
Tammy Lee Morris is certified as a
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member and is a trained
Skywarn Storm Spotter through the National Weather Service. She has
received interpretive training regarding the New Madrid Seismic Zone
through EarthScope -- a program of the National Science Foundation. She
researches and writes about earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, weather
and other natural phenomena.
2012: Magnetic Pole Reversal Happens All The (Geologic) Time
2012: Magnetic Pole Reversal Happens All The (Geologic) Time
11.30.11
› View larger
Scientists understand that Earth's magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times over the millennia. In other words, if you were alive about 800,000 years ago, and facing what we call north with a magnetic compass in your hand, the needle would point to 'south.' This is because a magnetic compass is calibrated based on Earth's poles. The N-S markings of a compass would be 180 degrees wrong if the polarity of today's magnetic field were reversed. Many doomsday theorists have tried to take this natural geological occurrence and suggest it could lead to Earth's destruction. But would there be any dramatic effects? The answer, from the geologic and fossil records we have from hundreds of past magnetic polarity reversals, seems to be 'no.'
Reversals are the rule, not the exception. Earth has settled in the last 20 million years into a pattern of a pole reversal about every 200,000 to 300,000 years, although it has been more than twice that long since the last reversal. A reversal happens over hundreds or thousands of years, and it is not exactly a clean back flip. Magnetic fields morph and push and pull at one another, with multiple poles emerging at odd latitudes throughout the process. Scientists estimate reversals have happened at least hundreds of times over the past three billion years. And while reversals have happened more frequently in "recent" years, when dinosaurs walked Earth a reversal was more likely to happen only about every one million years.
Sediment cores taken from deep ocean floors can tell scientists about magnetic polarity shifts, providing a direct link between magnetic field activity and the fossil record. The Earth’s magnetic field determines the magnetization of lava as it is laid down on the ocean floor on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Rift where the North American and European continental plates are spreading apart. As the lava solidifies, it creates a record of the orientation of past magnetic fields much like a tape recorder records sound. The last time that Earth's poles flipped in a major reversal was about 780,000 years ago, in what scientists call the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal. The fossil record shows no drastic changes in plant or animal life. Deep ocean sediment cores from this period also indicate no changes in glacial activity, based on the amount of oxygen isotopes in the cores. This is also proof that a polarity reversal would not affect the rotation axis of Earth, as the planet's rotation axis tilt has a significant effect on climate and glaciation and any change would be evident in the glacial record.
A schematic diagram of Earth's interior and the movement of magnetic
north from 1900 to 1996. The outer core is the source of the geomagnetic
field. Graphic Credit: Dixon Rohr› View larger
› View unlabeled version Earth's polarity is not a constant. Unlike a classic bar magnet, or the decorative magnets on your refrigerator, the matter governing Earth's magnetic field moves around. Geophysicists are pretty sure that the reason Earth has a magnetic field is because its solid iron core is surrounded by a fluid ocean of hot, liquid metal. This process can also be modeled with supercomputers. Ours is, without hyperbole, a dynamic planet. The flow of liquid iron in Earth's core creates electric currents, which in turn create the magnetic field. So while parts of Earth's outer core are too deep for scientists to measure directly, we can infer movement in the core by observing changes in the magnetic field. The magnetic north pole has been creeping northward – by more than 600 miles (1,100 km) – since the early 19th century, when explorers first located it precisely. It is moving faster now, actually, as scientists estimate the pole is migrating northward about 40 miles per year, as opposed to about 10 miles per year in the early 20th century.
Another doomsday hypothesis about a geomagnetic flip plays up fears about incoming solar activity. This suggestion mistakenly assumes that a pole reversal would momentarily leave Earth without the magnetic field that protects us from solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun. But, while Earth's magnetic field can indeed weaken and strengthen over time, there is no indication that it has ever disappeared completely. A weaker field would certainly lead to a small increase in solar radiation on Earth – as well as a beautiful display of aurora at lower latitudes -- but nothing deadly. Moreover, even with a weakened magnetic field, Earth's thick atmosphere also offers protection against the sun's incoming particles.
The science shows that magnetic pole reversal is – in terms of geologic time scales – a common occurrence that happens gradually over millennia. While the conditions that cause polarity reversals are not entirely predictable – the north pole's movement could subtly change direction, for instance – there is nothing in the millions of years of geologic record to suggest that any of the 2012 doomsday scenarios connected to a pole reversal should be taken seriously. A reversal might, however, be good business for magnetic compass manufacturers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)