The Earth’s magnetic pole is rapidly shifting towards Russia

The Earth’s magnetic pole is rapidly shifting towards Russia

Published 05.01.2024 | By Йосиф

The Earth’s magnetic pole is rapidly shifting towards Russia! What are the consequences for us?

The north magnetic pole of our planet is moving from the Arctic coast of Canada towards the Russian archipelago of Severnaya Zemlya.

Moreover, this happens so quickly that scientists had to urgently release a new version of the World Magnetic Model (WMM), on which all modern navigation is based – from ship control systems to Google maps in your smartphone.

WMM is usually updated every five years, and the last time this happened was three and a half years ago. However, at the end of 2018, the magnetic pole crossed the international Date Line and “officially” moved to the Eastern Hemisphere.

Why is this important?

The fact is that the geographical North Pole is an unremarkable point of our planet (from the point of view of physics), and navigation systems determine its location relative to the magnetic pole, which is easily located using a compass.

Thus, the displacement of the magnetic pole leads to distortions in the construction of routes. And if this does not matter much for a resident of Moscow, London or Novosibirsk, then such an error can be extremely dangerous for navigation in the Arctic.

For example, the Global Magnetic Model is the main reference point for warships and aircraft, which, due to an error, may accidentally enter someone else’s water or airspace and provoke a diplomatic scandal.

In addition, the “official” magnetic model sets coordinates for submarines, commercial airlines, as well as space satellites, search and rescue operations, and so on.

For example, numbers are assigned to runways based on it. Since the construction of the airport in Denver – the largest in North America – the magnetic pole has shifted relative to the geographical one by 2.5 degrees.

What’s happening?

Apparently, changes are taking place in the outer core of our planet, but scientists know quite a bit about it. Presumably, it consists of an iron-nickel alloy, which is in a liquid state and moves, forming a magnetic field.

We have known that the magnetic pole is continuously moving before – since it was first measured in 1831 by British sailor and explorer James Clark Ross, on the island of Butia in the Canadian archipelago.

However, in the 1990s, its movement accelerated almost fourfold: from about 15 km per year to 55 km per year.

In 2001, he “left the territory” of Canada and began to move further north – but not directly to the geographical pole, but slightly deviating to the west.

In 2018, as already mentioned, he crossed the Date Line, moving to the Eastern Hemisphere, and now continues to move towards Russia.

“It seems that the location of the north magnetic pole is determined by two very large-scale sections of the magnetic field – one is located under Canada and the other under Siberia,” British geomagnetic professor Phil Livermore is quoted by Nature magazine.

“And the Siberian section wins this competition,” concludes the professor.

Source: bbc.com

https://ecology.md/ru/page/magnitnyj-poljus-zemli-bystro-smeshhaetsja-v-storonu-rossii-kakie-nas-zhdut-posledstvija