Table of Contents
Dave Patterson
While the Department of Defence is spending billions to counteract climate change, no one is talking about a real geologic phenomenon. Scientists have revealed the Earth’s magnetic poles are moving. That sounds significant, yet very little is being said in national security circles about what the magnetic poles switching places might do to weapon systems that may be influenced by magnetic poles wandering about the globe.
“Earth’s magnetic field is governed by the flow of materials in our planet’s core, and it seems that two competing magnetic ‘blobs’ along the outer core are pulling at the magnetic north pole,” science contributor Eric Mack wrote in Forbes. Scientists believe they’ve uncovered what may be causing the shift, “which has implications for everyday navigation and mapping systems among other things,” Mack explained. The centre of the planet is a solid iron sphere surrounded by molten iron that flows. Dynamic pressure is exerted in this deep terrestrial realm by the two magnetic areas, one under Canada and one beneath Siberia, and the Siberian region is pulling the Canadian area toward it. Consequently, the focus of polar magnetism is centering in Russian Siberia.
Magnetic Poles Landing in Russia
“This is why the North Pole has left its historic position over the Canadian Arctic and crossed over the International Date Line. Russia is winning the ‘tug of war,’ if you like,” Dr Phil Livermore of Leeds University explained to the BBC. Leeds geoscientists have measured the speed at which the Canadian pole is moving toward the Siberian at approximately 30-40 miles a year. Meanwhile, geophysical forces are in motion at the core of the Earth.
As the globe rotates about an axis, a line drawn through the planet identifying the Geographic North and South Poles, it seems the inner core also spins about Earth’s axis, not necessarily consistent with the 24-hour rotation of the planet. This inconsistency is possible because the liquid outer core minimizes the influence of the rest of the globe rotation. So, there is a slowing of the inner core without the rest of Earth retarding. A January 23 Wall Street Journal article explained:
“A team of researchers from China believe the Earth’s inner core has reversed its rotation after they analyzed earthquake-driven seismic waves as they pass through the Earth … [R]esearchers said the reversal of the inner core rotation would shorten the length of the day by a fraction of a millisecond over the course of a year and might have a small effect on Earth’s magnetic field but wouldn’t affect life on the surface.”
Whether the effect on Earth’s magnetic field is large or small is yet to be determined. Scientists conclude that the planet’s core is slowing and possibly reversing direction, and the magnetic poles are shifting. NASA scientists have written about the shift with an air of reassurance that no catastrophic consequences will result. NASA explained: “the Earth’s magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times over the millennia.” In other words, the North Pole has moved South, and the South Pole has moved North, as the title of the agency’s article suggests: “2012: Magnetic Pole Reversal Happens All the (Geologic) Time.” The qualifier is “(Geologic) Time.” So, that means not every week. “Earth has settled in the last 20 million years into a pattern of a pole reversal about every 200,000 to 300,000 years,” NASA noted. And it has been twice that long since the last magnetic shift.
NASA Says No Dramatic Effects, But Who Knows
Though the fossil records show no “dramatic” effects when the last shift occurred approximately 600,000 years ago, there were no highly sophisticated mapping and navigation systems that depended on Magnetic North and South to be reliable at the time. However, now we have become hostage to satellite navigation, and anti-satellite weapons could take out that capability. It seems the United States would be at a disadvantage having to depend on ground-based systems for precision weapons and location accuracy without GPS satellites and reliable magnetic poles providing baseline guidance. But the truth is, we don’t know what predicament the magnetic shift portends for our military.
More troubling is that the US Defence Department does not appear concerned. There is no funding to study the effects of a magnetic shift change, and this could leave the United States in a uniquely unprepared situation.
