Flipping Out

Super interesting: the North and South poles could flip one of these days… Article doesn’t speculate about what that means for the topology of the whole gravitational envelope or, for instance, the effect on bird migration [birds somehow interpret gravity to find their way over long distances,] much less how weather systems and therefore climate change might react.

Earth’s magnetic field has the potential to reverse within less than a century, and scientists say there is evidence the poles are now moving toward such a flip.

[sediment] layers reveal the last magnetic reversal occurred approximately 786,000 years ago, long before humans walked the planet.

The flip happened after more than 6,000 years of instability, including two intervals of low magnetic field strength that lasted about 2,000 years each.

Such a quiet period in modern times could expose Earth’s surface to harmful levels of solar radiation, possibly increasing the rates of cancer and disrupting electrical power grids, scientists caution.

EarthWeek