Its getting worse

[tecoyah]

I have followed this for over a decade....and it has worried me in the background for years.....what do you all think:




"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."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/about.html

 

[CaliNORML]

Calm down the sky is not falling. I swear.

This is the shift in the magnetic shields, it had been happening for eons.

CLICK HERE NOVA The Magnetic Storm

This is why the map in Portugal from their famous Nautical Library ( the first map ever made pre-Columbus) is upside down. The compass pointed the wrong direction, and it will again.

The thing I wonder if is causing the ocean currents to slow down and produce the ice melt and ice age cycle? Maybe they will reverse?

I do not know if a magnetic fields have any bearing on how water circles around a drain. I am trying to imagine if it did, after the poles switch will water circle counterclock wise all over the northeren hemisphere, our ocean currents too? Freaky if true.

KMS

 

[tecoyah]

Calm down the sky is not falling. I swear.

This is the shift in the magnetic shields, it had been happening for eons.

CLICK HERE NOVA The Magnetic Storm

This is why the map in Portugal from their famous Nautical Library ( the first map ever made pre-Columbus) is upside down. The compass pointed the wrong direction, and it will again.

The thing I wonder if is causing the ocean currents to slow down and produce the ice melt and ice age cycle? Maybe they will reverse?

I do not know if a magnetic fields have any bearing on how water circles around a drain. I am trying to imagine if it did, after the poles switch will water circle counterclock wise all over the northeren hemisphere, our ocean currents too? Freaky if true.

KMS

Damn...I was kinda hoping for a reply from someone with....well...a bit more....experience. While I do appreciate you taking the time, I have purposefully avoided conversation with you due to the obvious comprehension Gap. Though I will admit to confusion brought about by your....uh....post, I think you might be refering to the Atlantic Conveyer belt?....Maybe.
One can only hope you are not serious about the comparison with magnatic fields and gravity.....or the toilet circulation myth....please tell me you are either ten years old.....or joking. If neither of these are the case (though from your post history, it seems sadly likely one is indeed....truth) please refrain from ever talking in public again.

 

[CaliNORML]

Mea Culpa.

Heard ya, will try to learn the art out of your way. Thanks for the pointers.

KMS

 

[ashurbanipal]

I have a couple thoughts, and a comment or two:

Thoughts:

1) While I don't know the details, I imagine that the scientists who are studying this phenomenon will be looking for evidence to distinguish between the pole-flipping and the cessation of the field scenarios. Most of what I have read on this indicates that it's nearly the consensus that the former will happen. This is what has happened in the past, and it is also what the models currently in use predict. It appears that as magnetic instabilities form, it weakens the magnetic field overall as the geodynamo begins to reverse its spin. There is a temporary weakening of the field, and then either the polarity stabilizes or reverses, and the field strengthens again.

2) The example of Mars is troubling, though, as it's a real-world example of a planet that lost most of its magnetic field. There is no firm reason to believe, though, that this had anything more than tangentially to do with the current climate on Mars, at least not as far as I can determine. It appears more likely that Mars' climate is due to its relative lack of proximity to the sun, its different chemical makeup, longer year, relative lack of water, lack of a large satellite, and other such factors.

3) In any case, I think there is some call for alarm, but probably not to the extent that other factors ought to be worrying us. It's certainly the case that the magnetosphere protects us from being bombarded by cosmic and (some types of) solar radiation. If it weakens, we should naturally expect this to intensify. Even if it's the case (as seems likely) that the polarity is undergoing a shift, there would be an interim period where radiation would increase somewhat. It would very likely not be the end of life as we know it, however.

Comments:

1) CaliNORML was talking about the Coriolis force, I believe. It does have an effect on ocean currents, though it is not the only, or most important, force that has to be looked at. It has to do with the rotation of the earth, not the magnetic field, though, and I don't think that a magnetic pole reversal would cause it to change.

2) It's really much more likely that we'll doom ourselves through moronic economic activity and wholesale environmental destruction. The Siberian permafrost (for instance) appears to be melting; it may be that we're already too late to stop runaway global warming. Instead of Mars, we may end up looking like Venus. 2005 was something of a ride; I'm interested to see if things intensify this year.

 

[stsburns]

We have centripital force and magnetic rings? Its like we have our own "sheild" against such attacks! :mrgreen:

 

[-Demosthenes-]

Oh no, we're all going to die and stuff. :spin:

 

[cherokee]

Clam down people its all going to be ok.
I have foreseen this and as long as we don’t allow Michael Jackson to reproduce then nothing is going to happen.
OH crap we are all going to die!

On a serious note

YellowStone is something to think about.

 

[stsburns]

Chicken Little-"The Sky is falling, the sky is falling!" :rofl

I'm sure we've all heard this story before! :mrgreen:

 

[Logos]

Funny i watched "Magnetic Storm" in geography class last week.

No we have a few billion years until the magnetic field stops existing due to the stop of our core. although the magnetic field flips (the north pole becomes the south) about every 200,000 years but we are 600,00 thousand years over due and.

the film goes on to talk about during a flip skin cancer and other radiation caused things will increase on a world wide scale causing the death of tens of thousands of people.

the first stages of the flip are happening now but it will not really "happen" in our lifetimes but maybe in our kids or their kids time and it will last a few decades or so.

As for mars that is one of the leading theories about how it lost it's atmosphere. the core stopped, no magnetic field, and slowly the radiation bleed away it's atmosphere as stated in the film.

the film was pretty good but like all possible world catastrophe science non - fiction movies for educational purpose the try to make it sound all threatening and doomsday like to A. get people interested or B. get more funding but all they end up doing is making it cheesy.

Anyway I think that article the OP put up there is just more of an ad because it leaves out all the facts and just give you the Oh, Sh!t info. Cool subject though and a good movie.

 

[stsburns]

Yea, but are those scientists going to live long enough to see their research come true?