The magnetic pole may be about to "flip", which is a term best understood in geological time spans, rather than human life spans. It will not surprise me if it does.
I've been watching this for years, and get e-mail updates from government agencies when the world geomagnetic model changes. I plotted the changes in Google Earth. For many, many years since 1550, the magnetic pole meandered in Hudson's Bay, Canada (around Baffin Island), but in the last few years, it started galloping, with increasing velocity (i.e. it "accelerated") towards Siberia, and is currently moving in a more or less straight line, picking up speed as it goes.
This is a problem for folks who use old-fashioned map and compass navigation. It does not affect the constellation of satellites that inform GPS receivers, however. Most declination diagrams on USGS topographic maps rapidly go out of date, because of the accelerating change in the north and south poles. I would imagine that within the next 500 to 750 years, "north" may change approximate places with "south". The problem there is that at times "east" will be seen as "north" from some points on earth when using a compass.
It will not change the spin poles at all, so the "north" star will maintain it's position (which changes slightly over 26,000 years due to precession, and describes a small circle around the geographic nor pole or "spin pole" of earth's axis), nor will continents change position or collide, or any of the crazy stuff that some folks freak out about. It's just the nickel-iron core of the earth adjusting itself.
It may affect my own personal navigation ability a wee bit. When I was a teenager, around 14, my dear old dad insisted that I couldn't find my way around the wilderness because I probably had no "sense of direction". So, to illustrate his point, he blindfolded me and drove me a few miles away to prove what he said, dropping me off in the middle of nowhere and instructing me to find my way home. It took me about two days, when it should have taken a day and a half. I don't know how I knew which way to go, whether by sun moon and stars, or some sense of the magnetic field. I just knew is all I can tell you. Other times, I've used waterways to navigate - once I got out of the car in the middle of a town and found my way home by following creeks and rivers on foot. That might be seen as "child abuse" now, but to be honest I'm glad my dad was his peculiar kind of strange, because I think it helped me in later years, in other untenable situations... but that is another story for another time.
The last time the magnetic poles traded places was long before humans even existed. If humans are using the magnetic field now for unconscious navigation, that could get a little dicey for a few years until it settles down and people adjust their internal magnetometers. Birds DO use the magnetic field for navigation, without much question, so a shift may affect their migratory patterns and change them. It should not affect the GPS constellation or the Russian Glonast constellation, unless the weakening magnetic shield allows cosmic rays to fry their electronics. I would think governments would think far enough ahead to install shielding within those satellites, but who knows for sure? Governments do a lot of crazy shit, and sometimes don't do a lot of sane shit. There are some "GPS" receivers that will also read from Glonast, and it might not be a bad idea to invest in one if you can find it - maybe one constellation goes down and the other survives, or maybe one government scrambles theirs (like the US government did for years) and the other one doesn't. With a receiver that reads both, you double your chances.
The stars, sun, and moon will not change their orbits or apparent orbits, so learning to navigate by them will stand you in good stead.
If, however, humans read and use the magnetic field, there may be some instances of a disoriented feeling ahead for us.
Interesting times - but prepared people are prepared.
Now, my real question is: if this proves to be a real "sixth sense", does that mean that ESP an such like phenomena are now "seventh senses"?
.
I've been watching this for years, and get e-mail updates from government agencies when the world geomagnetic model changes. I plotted the changes in Google Earth. For many, many years since 1550, the magnetic pole meandered in Hudson's Bay, Canada (around Baffin Island), but in the last few years, it started galloping, with increasing velocity (i.e. it "accelerated") towards Siberia, and is currently moving in a more or less straight line, picking up speed as it goes.
This is a problem for folks who use old-fashioned map and compass navigation. It does not affect the constellation of satellites that inform GPS receivers, however. Most declination diagrams on USGS topographic maps rapidly go out of date, because of the accelerating change in the north and south poles. I would imagine that within the next 500 to 750 years, "north" may change approximate places with "south". The problem there is that at times "east" will be seen as "north" from some points on earth when using a compass.
It will not change the spin poles at all, so the "north" star will maintain it's position (which changes slightly over 26,000 years due to precession, and describes a small circle around the geographic nor pole or "spin pole" of earth's axis), nor will continents change position or collide, or any of the crazy stuff that some folks freak out about. It's just the nickel-iron core of the earth adjusting itself.
It may affect my own personal navigation ability a wee bit. When I was a teenager, around 14, my dear old dad insisted that I couldn't find my way around the wilderness because I probably had no "sense of direction". So, to illustrate his point, he blindfolded me and drove me a few miles away to prove what he said, dropping me off in the middle of nowhere and instructing me to find my way home. It took me about two days, when it should have taken a day and a half. I don't know how I knew which way to go, whether by sun moon and stars, or some sense of the magnetic field. I just knew is all I can tell you. Other times, I've used waterways to navigate - once I got out of the car in the middle of a town and found my way home by following creeks and rivers on foot. That might be seen as "child abuse" now, but to be honest I'm glad my dad was his peculiar kind of strange, because I think it helped me in later years, in other untenable situations... but that is another story for another time.
The last time the magnetic poles traded places was long before humans even existed. If humans are using the magnetic field now for unconscious navigation, that could get a little dicey for a few years until it settles down and people adjust their internal magnetometers. Birds DO use the magnetic field for navigation, without much question, so a shift may affect their migratory patterns and change them. It should not affect the GPS constellation or the Russian Glonast constellation, unless the weakening magnetic shield allows cosmic rays to fry their electronics. I would think governments would think far enough ahead to install shielding within those satellites, but who knows for sure? Governments do a lot of crazy shit, and sometimes don't do a lot of sane shit. There are some "GPS" receivers that will also read from Glonast, and it might not be a bad idea to invest in one if you can find it - maybe one constellation goes down and the other survives, or maybe one government scrambles theirs (like the US government did for years) and the other one doesn't. With a receiver that reads both, you double your chances.
The stars, sun, and moon will not change their orbits or apparent orbits, so learning to navigate by them will stand you in good stead.
If, however, humans read and use the magnetic field, there may be some instances of a disoriented feeling ahead for us.
Interesting times - but prepared people are prepared.
Now, my real question is: if this proves to be a real "sixth sense", does that mean that ESP an such like phenomena are now "seventh senses"?
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’