How Scientists Are Tracking the Dangerous Weakening of Earth's Magnetic Field

[Undertaker]

The Earth is blanketed by a magnetic field. It’s what makes compasses point north, and protects our atmosphere from continual bombardment from space by charged particles such as protons. Without a magnetic field, our atmosphere would slowly be stripped away by harmful radiation, and life would almost certainly not exist as it does today.

You might imagine the magnetic field is a timeless, constant aspect of life on Earth, and to some extent you would be right. But Earth’s magnetic field actually does change. Every so often — on the order of several hundred thousand years or so — the magnetic field has flipped. North has pointed south, and vice versa. And when the field flips it also tends to become very weak.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-tracking-dangerous-weakening-earths-223256543.html

 

[user 6493]

well this is something you can not do anything about,depending on just what happens you may not be able to even prep for it,,,not a very pleasant thought

 

[Maverick]

The reversal been going on for some time, it's not uncommon in the Earths geo time frame for the poles to switch. I'm not overly concerned with the poles switching and besides, I already have a compass (Suunto M-3G (Global) Compass) that will work when it does switch though I don't believe I would be around once the flip takes place The last time the field switched was like 700k years ago .

As a side note, the magnetic field is always changing, that's why maps need to be updated every 5-10 years to adjust for the declination changes of the maps

 

[user 6493]

here is a thought,,all this screaming about GLOBAL WARMING,,,,could the changes taking place be causing the climate changes we are seeing....

 

[Maverick]

here is a thought,,all this screaming about GLOBAL WARMING,,,,could the changes taking place be causing the climate changes we are seeing....

Geologist studied plant fossils before and after the flip and found nothing that has changed suggesting it had no impact on the weather.

 

[Skeeter]

I recently found out that those "weegee" boards (spelling) work using the Earth's magnetic field.