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Why does the earth even have a magnetic field?

Why are people not more concerned about the upcoming reversal of the Earth's magnetic field?

  • Samples of the ocean floor show that the Earth's magnetic field undergoes periodic reversals, at several thousand year intervals. Since humans have developed technology there have been no such reversals, but some say it could happen again in 10-20 years or so. What will happen to all our computers and electronic devices if the magnetic field is reversed? Is there any reason to think there will be significant changes?

  • Answer:

    There is no fossil evidence implicating any of the thousands of pole reversals in the past as a cause of mass extinctions, so it is unlikely there will be major health issues for us outside of a theoretical potential for a slightly increased risk of skin cancer. The comments about migration patterns and the Auroras sound somewhat plausible. As for effects on electronics and other technology, a good test for most devices you have might be to turn them around so they face the opposite direction and see how that affects them. To them, the magnetic field will then be reversed for all practical purposes.

surlygur... at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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First of all the reversal isn't instantaneous. It's thought that a total reversal takes as long as a thousand years or so. Secondly, there's absolutely no way to stop the reversal, nor any way we can protect ourselves from its most dangerous effect (..increased exposure to high-energy radiation from the sun..) so we might just as well relax and take it as it comes.

Zeta Reticuli

The "reversal" will have very little impact to us. Don't worry. What you should worry about is the degradation of the field, meaning the time that we don't have one. It has been proven that sometimes the field is extremely weak or not even there for periods of time. That will increase skin cancer rates, and the Aurora Borealis will be seen in Texas. But that is about it. Nothing to worry about.

Robert D

The only potentially harmful effect would be people getting lost when relying on a magnetic compass to navigate. The Earth's magnetic field is far too weak to harm electronic equipment.

lithiumdeuteride

Maybe everything will revert back to y2k!

The Magnanimous MB

Well, people aren't more concerned because there isn't a damned thing we can do to stop it. Plus, it has happend before and the earth is still here.

mike h

If it happens it most seriously will have dire implications. There are many theories to what will happen: 1. No longer filtered out, deadly cosmic rays will kill most, if not all of the living species on the planet. 2. Immense death count from widespread radiation induced cancers 3. Migratory patterns of birds would be destroyed 4. Massive Earthquakes would erupt from disturbances in the Earth's crust. These are just a few of the extreme theories, this link has in-depth discussion about the reversal: http://www.pureenergysystems.com/news/2005/02/27/6900064_Magnet_Pole_Shift/

enividaliehs

I know dfor a fact that the earth will start to spin in a counter clock wise direct when the polarity uis recveresed.

SHIITEPIECE

if we all eat enough iron in our diets and sleep with our heads pointing north we should be able to stop it for a few more years, at least until we find a cure for paranoia

Adrian F

I'm pretty sure nobody knows the speed at which the actual reversal takes place, only the intervals it occurs on.

Milo

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