Earth’s magnetic poles could be getting ready to flip, says SWARM manager by ROBERT on JULY 9, 2014 · LEAVE A COMMENT Facebook Twitter Our magnetic field is weakening ten times faster than thought! 8 July 2014 – Earth’s magnetic field, which protects the planet from huge blasts of radiation, has been weakening over the past six months, says livescience. Magnetometers onboard Swarm satellites — three separate satellites placed in orbit by the European Space Agency (ESA) — show that Earth’s magnetic field is weakening at the rate of 5 percent per decade, 10 times faster than thought. Previously, researchers had estimated that the field was weakening about 5 percent per century. This indicates that a full-fledged magnetic reversal could happen sooner than anyone thought. Red shades show areas where Earth’s magnetic field has strengthened over the past six months. Blue shades show areas that are weakening. Credit: ESA/DTU “The scientists who conducted the study are still unsure why the magnetic field is weakening, but one likely reason is that Earth’s magnetic poles are getting ready to flip, said Rune Floberghagen, the ESA’s Swarm mission manager.” “Such a flip is not instantaneous, but would take many hundred if not a few thousand years,” Floberghagen told Live Science. “They have happened many times in the past.” If you’ve read either “Not by Fire but by Ice” or “Magnetic Reversals and Evolutionary Leaps,” you know that I completely disagree with that statement. Studies at Steens Mountain, central Oregon, have shown that magnetic reversals may have occurred in as few as 30 days. “There is no evidence that a weakened magnetic field would result in a doomsday for Earth,” the Live Science article continues. “During past polarity flips there were no mass extinctions or evidence of radiation damage. Researchers think power grids and communication systems would be most at risk.” Again, if you’ve read either of my books, you know that I completely disagree with those statements, too. Along with other catastrophic events, I think I make a good case that magnetic reversals trigger ice ages, extinctions, evolutionary leaps (via those increased blasts of mutation-causing radiation), ocean warming (via increased underwater volcanic activity), and vastly increased earthquake and volcanic activity. These first results from Swarm were presented at the Third Swarm Science Meeting in Denmark on June 19. See entire article: livescience/46694-magnetic-field-weakens.html Thanks to Jack Hydrazine, Thomas McHart and Robert Stom for this link By the way, the article also mentions that “scientists think fluctuations in the magnetic field could help identify where continental plates are shifting and help predict earthquakes.” That is one statement that I think/hope could be true.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 22:47:24 +0000
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