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December 21, 2019 05:34 pm

Earth's Magnetic North Pole Changes Time Zones, Just Keeps Drifting

pgmrdlm tipped us off to an unprecedented scientific phenomenon. Forbes writes:Earth's magnetic north pole has been moving East at an unusually fast pace, heading from the Canadian Arctic toward Russia. The rapid change of the magnetic poles has caused concern over navigation, GPS systems, military operations, etc. The northern magnetic pole has been drifting toward Russia at a speed of 34 miles per year (55 kilometers per year) but has slowed recently to 25 miles per year (40 kilometers per year). Popular Mechanics writes:The magnetic poles have drifted and entirely changed places dozens of times in Earth's history, but this time it seems to be happening very fast, and within a shorter overall time interval than it did in prehistory... [S]witches happened thousands or millions of years apart and took thousands of years for the poles to physically move enough to switch. This is the first time scientists are observing drifting magnetic field activity in real time and measuring the rate of change as well.

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