“the magnetic field inside the earth is turning independently at a rate different from that of the earth. during a potential reversal, the magnetic field does not vanish. they just gets more complicated. a south magnetic pole might emerge over africa, for instance, or a north pole over tahiti.” you can throw away your compasses now.

this is not the sci-fi film you watched last weekend, its NASA and BBC reporting: “the earth’s magnetic field is changing: compass needles in Africa are drifting about 1 degree per decade. this shift has accelerated in the recent years and at this rate there could be a complete reversal of earths poles.” what would that mean for it inhabitants? the poles continued to shift during the 20th century, at an average speed of 10 km per year, in recent years accelerating to 40 km per year. at this rate the north pole will exit north america and reach siberia in just a few decades.

in case your plan B was to escape using your miles on virgin galactic here’s some bad weather reports from mars: “data from NASA’s mars global surveyor and odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide “ice caps” near mars’ south pole are diminishing for three summers in a row.”

the magnetic fields on earth have completely reversed in the past. meaning the north and the south poles swap places. such reversals are recorded in the magnetism of ancient rocks. they come at irregular intervals averaging about 300,000 years; the last one was 780,000 years ago. sounds like its about time?

some background: “james ross located the pole for the first time in 1831 after an exhausting arctic journey during which his ship got stuck in the ice for four years. no one returned until the next century. In 1904, 73 years later, roald amundsen found the pole again and discovered that it had moved–at least 50 km since the days of Ross. 50 km in 70+ years.” and now 40k in just 1 year. yikes!!! lady gaga seems like a real important topic suddenly!!! excerpts from www.nasa.gov. also see BBC: is the earth preparing to flip? by dd