Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Mustaine on December 09, 2005, 09:51:41 AM
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051209/ap_on_sc/earth_magnetic_pole
SAN FRANCISCO - Earth's north magnetic pole is drifting away from North America and toward Siberia at such a clip that Alaska might lose its spectacular Northern Lights in the next 50 years, scientists said Thursday.
Despite accelerated movement over the past century, the possibility that Earth's modestly fading magnetic field will collapse is remote. But the shift could mean Alaska may no longer see the sky lights known as auroras, which might then be more visible in more southerly areas of Siberia and Europe.
The magnetic poles are part of the magnetic field generated by liquid iron in Earth's core and are different from the geographic poles, the surface points marking the axis of the planet's rotation.
Scientists have long known that magnetic poles migrate and in rare cases, swap places. Exactly why this happens is a mystery.
"This may be part of a normal oscillation and it will eventually migrate back toward Canada," Joseph Stoner, a paleomagnetist at Oregon State University, said Thursday at an American Geophysical Union meeting.
Previous studies have shown that the strength of the Earth's magnetic shield has decreased 10 percent over the past 150 years. During the same period, the north magnetic pole wandered about 685 miles out into the Arctic, according to a new analysis by Stoner...
there's more to the article, but you can not rationally say this has no effect on the weather, and general state of the planet.
the real question is, are my aluminium cans or my plastic bags that i don't recycle causing this? hasn't it been about 150 years since "global warming" started?
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EDIT: Nevermind it is mentioned in the article but yes the poles do switch on occasion.
I am one of those guys that chooses plastic at the store just to make it easier on the baggers. Oh well, I will see you all in hell.
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Never trust a Stoner
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It's surmised that they switch about every 5000 years.
Was a TV special on this about a year ago, only reason I knew.