[aculeus]

Beware anomolies.

[Pining_4_TX]

How about anemones? :)

[VRWC_minion]

The Earth's magnetic poles might be starting to flip

I hate when that happens.

[justshutupandtakeit]

What would be the result if this happens? Bad things?

[RightWhale]

Time to de-gauss

[Thumper1960]

So?

Why should we care? Especially, since it's over several millennia. Does this affect us today? Now?

Is the sky falling?

[TheDon]

If they continue to grow at the same rate, the Earth's dipole will disappear within just two millennia.

Who cares? All life will have perished due to global warming by then.

[aomagrat]

Foolish Humans!
Your magnetic poles are no match for our magnetoplasmadynamic deviation ray. You are doomed!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Black Agnes]

Now, all we got to do is outlaw those darned pesky SUV's and this problem will go away!

[pabianice]

Hey! We're the new southern hemisphere!

[MarkWar]

>The Earth's magnetic poles might be starting to flip say researchers who have seen strange anomalies in our planet's magnetic field.

Mark W.

[johnandrhonda]

Republicans and global warming will get the blame.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Did you know that the Canadians are rapidly losing the North Magnetic Pole?

Its now moving away from its (former) Hudson Bay location at a rate now exceeding several hundred kiometers - PER YEAR, if I recall the reference correctly.

D**m Canadians couldn't keep Gretzsky where he belongs, and now they're losing the North Pole!

[colorado tanker]

It's refrigerator magnets. There are so many refrigerator magnets that it's interfering with the earth's magnetic field. Of course, most are in the US, which is the heart of the problem. We must have a Global Magnetic Field Treaty banning refrigerator magnets. Earth is in the balance.

[SGCOS]

I knew this was happening. My toilet doesn't 'swoosh' around as much as it used to...

Maybe it's just clogged....

[LibWhacker]

As long as up and down don't flip.

[freedom9]

There are ancient accounts received from both China and the mideast of when the sun arose from the west.

If they are factual then it would account for the geological magnetic data recorded in the strata.
But it would seem that the position of the earth was reversed rather than the magnetic fields.

Isaiah 24
1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

[Conan the Librarian]

ACtually it can be bad.....the magnetic fieldis what keeps cosmic radiation away from the planet. (Look at the Auroras we have been having the last year.) Skin cancers could be a problem.

[DonQ]

This "flip" has occurred before, pretty much like the ice age, except at a longer interval. Calling it a flip is somewhat misleading because it is Very slow and gradual.

Essentially, the north pole magnetic field starts losing its strength. It very very gradually decreases over centuries until a moment comes when it cannot be said that there is a magnetic pole and magnetic compasses don't point any particular way. But the process hasn't stopped, it is simply in a pendulum swing. Gradually the south pole magnetic field starts to build up ... and the compass needle that used to point north begins to point south. After several centuries the south pole has essentially taken over the magnetic attraction that used to belong to the north pole.

We know this has happened before by examining the magnetic flecks in ancient lava and clay. When this stuff was first formed and still fairly liquid, whatever magnetic flecks were embedded in it (crumbs of iron and nickle) would tend to line up with the magnetic field ... if all or most of the flecks lined up together then the magnetic field was very strong at the time this stuff solidified, if the flecks were more random then the magnetic field was weaker. This sort of evidence indicates that the magnetic field has swung at least one full cycle in earth's history ... but north and south magnetism haven't changed places in all the time that humans have been using a magnetic compass so our human ancestors never experienced this shift.

[Kermit]

"If they continue to grow at the same rate, the Earth's dipole will disappear within just two millennia."

I'll mark my calendar.

[jumpstartme]

Those flipping poles again. Sounds like the dems are trying out a trial balloon issue for the new Alpha Gorator.

Don't worry mate, when those flipping poles reverse, we can catch our falling sky with reverse umbrellas. Better buy some magnetic insurance.