RainsWriter: Polarity Reversal

It started with a silly dream. Just as when there is a thunderstorm, my dog had her tail and head lowered, acting agitated. She went to the door as if she wanted to go outside. It appeared to be an emergency. So I stepped outside the door and got the line to her harness. As I turned back to my dog, she was floating upwards off the ground. I had to grab the harness to keep her from floating away. Then I awoke.

This farfetched dream made me laugh. It also made me think about the articles I have read over the years about gravity. On July 13th, 2004 the New York Times published a news item entitled, “Will Compasses Point South?” In 2014, Scientific American published an article that gave reasons why the flip of the poles may be sooner than expected.

The way metallic particles in volcanic rocks align themselves gives scientists clues and evidence of past polarity reversals. The last time the poles flipped was approximately 780,000 years ago. This process of reversal usually takes over a thousand years to complete and the human species has survived a number of these reversals. The last one was in the Stone Age. There is no need to panic. We are not likely to go floating off into space like my dog in the dream.

But, scientists do believe that a reversal started about 150 years ago. In 2001 The European Space Agency decided to track the Earth’s gravity field shifts with a trio of satellites called Swarm. These satellites (Alpha, Bravo & Charlie) were launched into polar orbits in November of 2013.​

​There have been a number of radiation induced satellite failures. These failures have happened over the Pacific Ocean west of Peru.The intensity of Earth’s magnetic field had been “particularly low” in this area. It has been called the South Atlantic Anomaly.

However, “in 2016, part of the magnetic field temporarily accelerated deep under northern South America and the eastern Pacific Ocean.” (Nature, 2017)

It appears that geomagnetism experts have their hands full. The magnetic north pole is moving—so rapidly, in fact, that scientists have had to update the World Magnetic Model much earlier than planned. They did this in January, 2019. It was necessary because our smartphones, Google maps and ship’s navigation systems use magnetic north.

You see, the north magnetic pole seems to wander unpredictably. This was discovered as far back as 1830 by James Clark Ross. Liquid churning of the molten iron in Earth’s outer magnetic core creates and causes most of the variations in Earth’s magnetic field.

“In 2018, the pole crossed the International Date Line into the Eastern Hemisphere. It is currently making a beeline for Siberia.” (Geophysics, 2018) P.W. Livermore, geomagnetist, states that, “The location of the north magnetic pole appears to be governed by two large-scale patches of magnetic field, one beneath Canada and one beneath Siberia. The Siberian patch is winning the competition.”

Historically, during Roman times, Earth’s magnetic field was double what it is now. This was discovered from the minerals in clay pots made during that time. But what really made me think about pole reversal was reading about the animals that use Earth’s magnetic field to navigate. What animal is on the list along with whales, loggerhead turtles and Zambian mole rats? Honeybees! Is this another piece of the disappearing puzzle? I saw no honey bees in my yard last summer.

The new World Magnetic Model which scientists published in January, 2019 is supposed to be good until 2020 but I wouldn’t hang my hat on it. Mother Earth may have a few surprises for us yet. Hang on, keep your faith strong and do what is right. It could be that the ride will get a little strange but it won’t be a dream.

planetprayers@gmail.com
©Ann Rains--April, 2019

Postscript: I became interested in polarity reversal back in 2008. Some of the research in this article was done at that time.