Posted on 04/06/2015 5:26:46 AM PDT by ckilmer
October 17, 2012 in Geology & Climate
During the last ice age, around 41,000 years ago, there was a very rapid and complete reversal of the Earth’s geomagnetic field, according to new research. There was already localized evidence of polarity reversals during this time, but with the new research, the theory that it was a global event is now strongly supported. And very interestingly, it is one that nearly coincided with the very fast, short-term climate variability of the last ice age and the largest volcanic eruption in the northern hemisphere during the last 100,000 years.
Magnetic studies using sediment cores taken from the Black Sea, done by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, have clearly shown that if you had a compass at the Black Sea during that time, it would have pointed towards the south, not the north.
But more importantly, new data gathered by the researchers when it’s combined with additional data from previous studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific, and Hawaii, strongly supports the theory that this polarity reversal was truly global.
What’s considered so remarkable about this reversal is the speed that it’s now thought to have occurred: “The field geometry of reversed polarity, with field lines pointing into the opposite direction when compared to today’s configuration, lasted for only about 440 years, and it was associated with a field strength that was only one quarter of today’s field,” explains Norbert Nowaczyk. “The actual polarity changes lasted only 250 years. In terms of geological time scales, that is very fast.”
The magnetic field at the time would have only had about 5% of the strength of the field today. This would have resulted in the Earth almost completely losing its protective shield, allowing hard cosmic rays to hit the surface, and greatly increasing radiation exposure.
“This is documented by peaks of radioactive beryllium (10Be) in ice cores from this time, recovered from the Greenland ice sheet. 10Be as well as radioactive carbon (14C) is caused by the collision of high-energy protons from space with atoms of the atmosphere.”
The polarity reversal observed in the magnetisation of Black Sea sediments isn’t new knowledge, though — it’s been known of for at least 45 years. First discovered in “the analysis of the magnetisation of several lava flows near the village Laschamp near Clermont-Ferrand in the Massif Central, which differed significantly from today’s direction of the geomagnetic field.” This geomagnetic feature has since then been called the Laschamp event.
That’s limited data though, representing only some specific point readings of the geomagnetic field during that time, so there had been debate about how to interpret it. When combined with all of the new data though, it creates a convincing image of “geomagnetic field variability at a high temporal resolution.”
The cores analyzed also provided insight into “numerous abrupt climate changes during the last ice age” that occurred at the same time — these climate changes had already been observed in ice cores taken from Greenland. “This ultimately allowed a high precision synchronisation of the two data records from the Black Sea and Greenland.”
“The largest volcanic eruption on the Northern hemisphere in the past 100,000 years, namely the eruption of the super volcano 39,400 years ago in the area of today’s Phlegraean Fields near Naples, Italy, is also documented within the studied sediments from the Black Sea.”
This volcanic eruption released about 350 cubic kilometers of ash, rock, and lava over all of the eastern Mediterranean, and parts of Russia and Asia.
All three of these global disasters; a rapid and complete reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field, the drastic short-term climate variability of the last ice age, and one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the last million years; have now been tied together and placed into a precise and connected chronological order.
The new research was just published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Source: Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Graphic to 2001. And where might it be now?
Whoops, my fault.
You fault for what? I see no whoops, just a wandering Pole.
Scholium: Newton's closing paragraph " And now we might add something concerning a certain most subtle spirit which pervades and lies hid in all gross bodies; by the force and action of which spirit the particles of bodies attract one another at near distances, and cohere, if contiguous; and electric bodies operate to greater distances, as well repelling as attracting the neighboring corpuscles; and light is emitted, reflected, refracted, inflected, and heats bodies; and all sensation is excited, and the members of animal bodies move at the command of the will, namely, by the vibrations of this spirit, mutually propagated along the solid filaments of the nerves, from the outward organs of sense to the brain, and from the brain into the muscles. But these are things that cannot be explained in few words, nor are we furnished with that sufficiency of experiments which is required to an accurate determination and demonstration of the laws by which this electric and elastic spirit operates." (also in PDF)
Why did Sir Isaac Newton end his opus magnum in this way? A simple statement of faith? Or was it something more encompassing?
:’) He’d have to answer that one, I think.
V wrote that Newton’s ‘world’ was devoid of the knowledge of electricity. Apparently Newton suspected there was more to it all than just gravity. Like Sheldon said in one episode of The Big Bang Theory, he would have ‘discovered’ gravity even without the apple. Chuckle.
There’s always something more. It was that ‘something more’ which Einstein was looking for. He may have found it too late, he was a very sick old man when he read Worlds in Collision, wasn’t he? What a pity. He must have taken that epiphany to the grave.
Make that electro-magnetism. I need to go back and find that particular paragraph from the book.
My kitchen-physics sometimes fail me.
http://www.holoscience.com/wp/synopsis/synopsis-3-a-little-history/
It became clear to Velikovsky that Newton’s concept of gravity was insufficient to explain the reported behaviour of the planets. And it certainly could not answer the obvious question, “why do the skies look so peaceful now?” This allowed a dogmatic response by academia to Velikovsky’s seminal breakthrough. It was said his theory didn’t obey Newton’s laws. But what did Newton know of electricity? And if anyone believes that Newton’s laws guarantee a stable planetary system – think again! Any gravitational system with more than two orbiting bodies is unstable. Yet the question is hardly ever asked, let alone answered, “what produces the observed stability of the solar system?” Velikovsky was convinced that the clue lay in his discovery that electrical forces dominate the incredibly weak force of gravity at times of planetary close encounters. Although he was unable to explain at the time how this would create the observed stability of the solar system, with his uncanny prescience he had pointed the way to the Electric Universe.
The result is now a “Big Picture” that emphasizes our dramatic prehistory and essential connectedness to the universe. No longer do we have to look at ourselves and the universe through the distorting sideshow mirrors of modern science.
The implications of electrical activity between planets will be profoundly disturbing for those who have built their cosmology around the weak force of gravity, acting in an electrically sterile universe. This strange, dogmatic oversight guarantees that nothing will remain in future of the fanciful Big Bang theory or the simplistic story of the formation of the solar system.
Serious Climate Change: Winds Blew in Reverse During Last Ice Age
Live Science | 1-23-07 | Andrea Thompson
Posted on 01/24/2007 7:50:30 AM PST by jcb1379
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1772866/posts
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