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Has anyone else been paying attention to the news, that 'The Earth's poles may be about to shift - and the consequences could be dire.' Inhabitat, by Kristine Lofgren?

Freedompath 9 Feb 1
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There is nothing we can do if they do...so be it!

Yes! At least I will know WHAT it is, if it happens on my lifetime#

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There are a lot of unknowns regarding magnetic pole reversals. They are thought to occur on the average of every 450,000 years, but a pole reversal during the last ice age that lasted less than 500 years is believed to have occurred.

The poles being reversed is not itself harmful. It would likely be a boon for compass makers! I also wonder what effect it might have on migratory animals that sense the magnetic field to find their direction. The biggest concern about a magnetic pole reversal, though, is that the magnetic field likely weakens during the process, reducing its effect of protecting Earth from the solar wind. Even when the magnetic field is at its maximum strength, a solar flare of sufficient intensity directed at Earth would cause catastrophic damage to the power grid, satellites, and pretty much anything else that is powered by electricity unless the flare is detected and precautions taken. It therefore stands to reason that a weakened magnetic field would allow a direct hit by a solar flare of lesser intensity to have such potentially catastrophic effects.

Still, though, a direct strike by a solar flare is a rare event indeed. Personally, I'm not losing any sleep over the prospect of a catastrophe related to a magnetic pole reversal.

(Edited to specify "reversal" instead of "shift" because the location of the N magnetic pole and the S magnetic pole is constantly drifting.)

I guses it is one of those occurrences that happens over a span of thousands of years, which means it could happen tomorrow or 50,000 years from now...!

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I agree with Skyfacer, mostly a bunch of hype to get attention.

Well, I am not so sure...if it switches about every 300,000 years and it has been switching recently but flipping back...it could switch and stay! NASA is monitoring the thing and something had shifted lately. Then on the other hand it might not happen in our time. I wonder how they measured for that 300,000 years back?

@Freedompath Earths core is constantly moving, (we are spinning after all right?) so it wouldn't surprise me to see a shift in the poles, although that process would seem to me to be pretty slow. I"m certainly not going to lose any sleep over it!! 🙂

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The earths magnetic poles are always shifting slightly more or less. Nothing much to worry about. Just that compasses rarely ever point to the geographic poles.

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