Posted on 05/13/2006 9:51:41 AM PDT by Crazieman
Ships' logs give clues to Earth's magnetic decline 19:00 11 May 2006 NewScientist.com news service Patrick Barry
The voyages of Captain Cook have just yielded a new discovery: the gradual weakening of Earth’s magnetic field is a relatively recent phenomenon. The discovery has led experts to question whether the Earth is on track towards a polarity reversal.
By sifting through ships’ logs recorded by Cook and other mariners dating back to 1590, researchers have greatly extended the period over which the behaviour of the magnetic field can be studied. The data show that the current decline in Earth's magnetism was virtually negligible before 1860, but has accelerated since then.
Until now, scientists had only been able to trace the magnetic field’s behaviour back to 1837, when Carl Friedrich Gauss invented the first device for measuring the field directly.
The field’s strength is now declining at a rate that suggests it could virtually disappear in about 2000 years. Researchers have speculated that this ongoing change may be the prelude to a magnetic reversal, during which the north and south magnetic pole swap places.
But the weakening trend could also be explained by a growing magnetic anomaly in the southern Atlantic Ocean, and may not be the sign of a large scale polarity reversal, the researchers suggest.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
What now-- global degaussing? ;-)
In the Left's dreams.
Wow - I might have to change my tagline!
Another damn thing to worry about.
roflmao!
I read in a science magazine several years ago that some scientists believe that the last ice age was brought on by a shift in the magnetic poles.
My thoughts exactly.
If John Kerry were President, he would have already had a plan to stop this dangerous magnetic decline; a sad, sad situation brought on entirely by the incompetence of the current administration. < / sarcasm>
"Can Dead Men Vote Twice?" has taken on a whole new significance...
Well, according to this article, the last pole shift was 780,000 years ago, which would invalidate that theory...
But it also says there is supposed to be a shift every 300,000 years or so, and that we're way overdue...
Mother nature must be in a tizzy..
She's "late"...
.. it's Bush's fault
This bi-polar trend is caused by the wanton, (in China Won-Ton) use of electric motors. Yes, Earth-Raper, every time you turn on your electric toothbrush, you are adding to the problem by creating a stray magnetic field which causes direct harm to women, gays, members of minority groups, and children, who will suffer most when the poles flip, which will surely happen before Bush is impeached, if we don't act quickly.
Thank God (if there is one) that Al Gore and John Kerry are on this alarming environmental disaster.
I've got to stop pushing the degauss button on my monitor.
Oh, Lord, he'll be making another movie on this, too...
He preyed upon our fears!
what would happen in a pole reversal?
It would be a definite e-ticket ride.
Oh and the Sta-Puft Man will grow to 60 feet tall and rampage through Central Park.
L
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