The deadline for flipping Earth's magnetic poles has long passed. Here's how it is threatening life

Earth has a magnetic fieldwhichappears very similar to a bar magnetthat hasa north and south pole.However, it is not comparatively stable since it gets generated by complex processes which are going on in the inner crust of the planet.Thisleads to the wandering of the magnetic poles.

The North Pole has been shifting at a speed of 15 kilometres every yearhistorically.However, the pace of shifting has increased since the 1990s to about 55 kilometres per year in the direction of Siberia.

Itis believedthat the shifting of poles may foreshadow a ‘magnetic reversal’ in which the locations of the magnetic north and south poles may change.

As per the scientists, the location of the two poles has changed 171 times in the last 71 million yearsandnow, Earth is overdue for a flip.

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Whyhavethe magnetic poles not flipped?

Models of the Earth’s magnetic field, which havebeen createdon the basis ofsatellite observations, have hinted that the present wandering has taken place because of conflict between ‘blobs’ which have intense magnetic fields and are present deep inside the planet.

However, no one is 100 per cent sure when the magnetic field of Earth will flip.

What will happen if magnetic poles flip?

The magnetic reversals were found by the scientists by measuring the magnetic field on the two sides of mid-Atlantic ridges.From the ridges, the molten rock flows slowly.

As the molten rock solidifies, its crystals align in the direction of the magnetic field of the Earth and leave a ‘tape recording’ of reversals.

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It is said that reversals take place over 1,000 to 10,000 years during which the magnetic field shrinks to zero, after which it grows again with the opposite polarity.

Hence, for centuries, Earth did not have any magnetic field. Such an absence of a magnetic field is dangerous for life.

This is because the magnetic field extends into space and creates a protective bubble around the planet and saves the Earth from the hurricane of particles emitted by the ‘solar wind’of the Sun and higher energy ‘cosmic ray’ particles from deep space.

(With inputs from agencies)