But if there is no earth's magnetic field. The absence of a magnetic field will drive astronauts crazy. Why do we need the Earth's magnetic field?

The absence of the Earth's magnetic field can lead to mental disorders in astronauts during interplanetary flights, in particular, on an expedition to Mars. This is evidenced by the results of experiments conducted by Russian scientists. Researchers from the Research Institute of Biology and Biophysics of Tomsk State University and the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMBP) conducted a series of experiments in which rats were isolated from the Earth’s magnetic field in a special installation. The results show that the experimental animals lost social behavior skills, experienced memory problems, and they also experienced changes in their internal organs.

The leaders of the study, director of the Research Institute of Biophysics Natalya Krivova and leading researcher at the IBMP Kirill Trukhanov, in an interview with RIA Novosti, noted that the Earth’s magnetic field affects all living organisms.

“Moreover, in the history of the biosphere, the field changed and at some moments became zero. There is an assumption that some disasters in the biota, say, the extinction of dinosaurs, are associated precisely with the disappearance of the magnetic field at some point,” Trukhanov said.

To study how the absence of a magnetic field affects living organisms, scientists created a special installation in which an electromagnetic system compensated for the earth's magnetic field so that the field inside it became very weak - 700-1000 times weaker than usual.

12 white male rats were placed in this “magnetic-free chamber” for 25 days and then for another ten days, another 12 rats were the control group. Both groups were under 24-hour video surveillance (at night, recording was carried out in infrared light).

“The first thing that caught my eye was that rats in magnetic-free conditions constantly fight. The aggressiveness was frenzied. The rats fight, then sleep exhausted, they didn’t even get up when they started to be fed. At the same time, everything was calm in the control rats. They sometimes woke up from the fights, from the screams that were in the experimental chamber,” Krivova said.

She explained that fighting among rats is a means of establishing hierarchy. Once the hierarchy in the group is established, fighting stops. According to the scientist, rodents deprived of the earth’s magnetic field “forgot” how hierarchy is established and lost social skills.

In addition, memory impairment was observed in rats. Before the experiments, they were all briefly placed in a special chamber to determine whether excitation or inhibition predominated in them.

"The test was carried out twice - before the experiment and after the experiment. Control rats came to this site, they were already here, they sit calmly in the center of the cage, they had a sharp decrease in motor activity. And the experienced ones - as if they were here for the first time, they ran to look again , where is what? They were already here, and they forgot about it,” said the agency’s interlocutor.

In addition, physiological changes were observed in experimental rats.

Krivova noted that Japanese scientists had previously studied how the absence of a magnetic field affects the development of newts. The results showed that their offspring had abnormally formed spine and eyes, and two-headed individuals appeared.

The strength of the Earth's magnetic field is 50 microtesla, which is thousands of times stronger than the magnetic field of other terrestrial planets - Mars, Mercury. It is the powerful magnetic field that protects the earth's surface and all life on it from the powerful flow of charged particles emanating from the Sun.

Trukhanov noted that existing manned spacecraft and stations fly at relatively low altitudes, where the magnetic field is only 20% less than the Earth's, however, on interplanetary expeditions, cosmonauts will have to deal with the absence of a magnetic field.

“If a ship flies to interplanetary distances, then there is no longer a magnetic field there; there is an interplanetary magnetic field, which is due to the fact that there are “pieces” of the magnetic field “frozen” into the solar wind, into the plasma that the sun throws out. The interplanetary field is weaker than the earth’s a thousand, ten thousand times, it depends on the conditions,” the scientist said.

As experiments with rats show, the absence of a magnetic field has a strong effect on the psyche of living beings.

“There can be serious consequences (in the absence of a magnetic field). Rats are a model that is used to study the possible effects of various drugs on humans. We can say that they are very close to us,” says Krivova.

Her colleague noted that during the American Apollo 11 flight to the Moon, when the ship left the Earth's magnetic field for only a few days, a conflict situation arose after returning.

“After landing, a very stormy explanation arose between Neil Armstrong and the second astronaut, Edwin Aldrin, the pilot of the lunar module. And Aldrin was diagnosed with a nervous breakdown,” Trukhanov noted.

According to researchers, it is necessary to look for means that will allow a person to adapt to a low magnetic field. In particular, according to Trukhanov, an artificial magnetic field can be generated on the ship.

It envelops everything on the planet, from the smallest magnets to our entire Earth, and is found even in space. Although we already know a lot about the magnetic field of our planet, it still holds many mysteries and exhibits strange phenomena.

Recent discoveries have shown us especially clearly how little is still known about geomagnetism and how these magnetic force lines affect not only our brains, but are even involved in the creation of legendary wormholes. Sometimes, somewhere far beyond the Earth's atmosphere, magnetic fields are created and then they themselves solve very interesting mysteries...

10. Magnetic moths

Australian animals are some of the strangest creatures on the planet. And now this mainland state can add the world's first magnetic moth to its list of wonders. The strange species was named Agrotis infusa or Bogon moth, and this creature is unique in that it is the first nocturnal insect to use the Earth's magnetic field during migration.

The discovery was made in 2018, and before it, scientists for a long time could not understand how exactly billions of such moths traveled a distance of almost 1000 kilometers, and always returned to the same caves in the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria (New South Wales, Victoria). As a result, the solution was found after conducting experiments on several of these insects in special insulated rooms. It turned out that the Bogon moth uses a magnetic field for navigation, and it usually compares it with certain landmarks on the ground. If one of the conditions disappears, the insect loses its way and does not understand where to follow.

This is a very interesting discovery, although it has not helped scientists understand exactly how migratory birds and other animals that migrate over long distances use our planet’s magnetosphere. One interesting theory is that light rays affect certain abilities of birds at a quantum level. Birds probably navigate best magnetically when their eyes perceive light. During daylight hours, an electrical signal arises in the bird’s brain at the molecular level, which helps the animal recognize the magnetic field. However, bogon moths are nocturnal, so their mode of navigation probably works quite differently.

9. Epicenter of the geomagnetic field reversal


Photo: Live Science

The Earth's magnetic field is weakening and thinning, and it is thinnest now in the area between South Africa and Chile, for which this zone was even called the South Atlantic Anomaly. The researchers decided to take a closer look at this region in the hope that there they would find the answer to the question of why the entire magnetic field of our planet began to weaken.

In 2018, experts discovered another anomaly, and this time it stretched from South Africa to Botswana. When the Iron Age people built their clay houses here, the fire preserved magnetic minerals in the clay in such a way that the state of the geomagnetic field of those years could be determined from these artifacts. Over the course of 1500 years, the electromagnetic field in this part of the world either thinned out, then completely changed its direction, then compressed, then protruded outward above the general pattern of field lines.

All these changes gave scientists reason to believe that the South Atlantic Anomaly had occurred before, and each time it was a harbinger of a change in the poles of the Earth's magnetic field. If this is indeed the case, then an unusual area in the South African region could be the very place where these major changes begin.

The current thinning of our planet's magnetic field can lead to 2 different scenarios. Either another polarity reversal will occur, or the field will again become denser to prevent a change in vectors. The second option is much better, since a weak magnetic field is not able to protect us sufficiently from strong ultraviolet radiation. It could all start with regular outages in power grids, which, if thinned, would become too vulnerable to geomagnetic storms, and would continue with much more unpleasant consequences.

8. The mystery of the bow shock wave


Photo: Live Science

The Earth revolves around the Sun at a speed of approximately 108 thousand kilometers per hour. Just like the bow of a ship cutting through the water as it passes, our planet's magnetic field guides us through the extremely hot solar wind constantly produced by our star.

For a long time, researchers believed that this bow shock wave around the Earth was the reason why the solar wind usually dissipates, reaching the surface of our home planet as a gentle breeze rather than a sizzling element. Without this mysterious process, our Earth would have been charred long ago. However, all the details of what is happening are still not fully understood.

One very important discovery may have been made in 2018. It turns out that the Earth's magnetic field destroys the sun's electrons. When scientists analyzed satellite data collected in the collision zone between the geomagnetic field and the sun, they were amazed at how the field was literally tearing apart the stellar wind.

When the supersonic solar wind reaches the Earth's bow shock region, the electrons are accelerated so strongly that they simply fall apart. As a result, the destructive energy of the solar wind is transformed into less dangerous heat.

7. New magnetic environment


Photo: space.com

The struggle between the solar wind and our magnetosphere does not fully protect the Earth from solar radiation. The decay of stellar wind particles is clearly a large load on our magnetic field, and as a result, its field lines are periodically broken. When one of these lines breaks, the energy absorbed by the solar wind field is released, causing problems with electrical grids, satellites and spacecraft.

In 2018, scientists decided to conduct another study to learn more about the nature of this problem. As a result, they discovered something completely new and absolutely amazing about magnetic activity. Previously, scientists have already noted that there is a special boundary between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. This zone was called the magnetolayer. However, the activity in this region was too high to determine whether our magnetic field lines in the same layer, along with solar electrons, were also being destroyed. With the help of several new satellites, scientists have confirmed that the process of reconnection (reconnection) also occurs in this magnetosheath.

When bonds are broken, particles begin to move 40 times faster than in a normal magnetic field. Researchers have discovered for the first time that two extremely important phenomena involving charged solar particles occur in the same place.

6. The Earth's magnetic field is shifting to the West


Photo: Live Science

Scientists have been observing our planet's magnetic field for more than 400 years. The information collected over all this time has increasingly puzzled researchers, who have long been struggling with one big mystery. For some reason inexplicable to us, the geomagnetic field is shifting in a westerly direction.

In 2018, researchers proposed a new and very unusual answer to this question. Jet currents in water, air and even the Earth's core create so-called Rossby waves. The entire outer core of our planet is actually a constantly rotating liquid, and these waves circulate with it.

By their nature, these traveling waves are already considered a rather strange phenomenon, and Rossby waves in the outer core behave completely differently from all other flows. Oceanic and atmospheric Rossby waves move toward the west, while waves in the outer core move toward the east. Although scientists cannot accurately calculate the direction in which all this power moves due to the significant depth at which these processes occur.

According to experts, despite the eastern orientation of Rossby waves in the outer core of the Earth, most of their energy shifts to the west and pulls the magnetic field along with it. In any case, researchers still do not have a clear explanation for why the geomagnetic field is shifting westward at a speed of 17 kilometers per year.

5. Earth's second magnetic field


Photo: sciencealert.com

Once again, scientists were perplexed to discover something amazing that had been right in front of their noses for so long. It turns out that our planet is surrounded by as many as 2 magnetic fields. Most people know that our main magnetic field owes its existence to processes occurring in the Earth's core. The second field was discovered quite by accident when the European Space Agency launched three new satellites into orbit to study geomagnetism.

After collecting data, researchers discovered that our planet has another secret. For 4 whole years, scientists from ESA analyzed the information received, until in 2018 they finally announced their amazing discovery to the whole world.

News of the second magnetic field was hidden for so long because its tidal force is extremely insignificant or almost imperceptible. If we compare it with the strength of the geomagnetic field that has long been known to us, it is weaker than it by as much as 20 thousand times.

In any case, the value of this discovery for scientists is extremely great, especially for those who have devoted their lives to the mysteries of geomagnetism. Each new detail complements the overall picture, like a piece of a puzzle, and it may well help us explain other phenomena. For example, answer the question of why the Earth's magnetic field periodically changes its poles, or how both magnetic fields influence each other. In addition, the new discovery could help scientists better understand the electrical properties of the lithosphere and crust.

4. The Mystery of the Pillars of Creation Revealed


Photo: ibtimes.com

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted the so-called “Pillars of Creation,” which became so famous that they were even printed on coasters and shown in movies. The delightful image of columns of interstellar gas and dust shimmering in different colors clearly resembles giant pillars, and, as we know, new stars are born somewhere there.

This cluster is located 7 thousand light years from Earth in the Eagle Nebula, and the mystery of the formation of these columns remained unsolved until 2018. New observations allowed scientists to detect a polarized glow emanating from, which revealed the presence of a magnetic field there. When experts were able to create a map of these fields, the origin of the famous trio was finally unraveled.

Magnetic forces slowed the spread of interstellar gas and cosmic dust within this nebula, and under their influence, these iconic columns were formed, recognizable almost throughout the world. The imposing cosmic structure remains in its current form for a long time precisely because of the influence of magnetic fields, which actually protect the pillars from destruction by their tidal force, the vector of which is opposite to the direction of the external magnetic forces of the surrounding space. Given the fact that new stars are constantly forming in the environment of the Pillars of Creation, understanding the nature of magnetism in their case can change the way scientists think about the process of star formation.

3. Uranus' magnetic field is constantly collapsing


Photo: space.com

When it comes to the magnetic field, Uranus has a tough time. In 2017, scientists wanted to study the magnetosphere of a fairly distant planet, and for this they used computer simulations and data obtained back in 1986 from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. As a result, we learned something unexpected about a planet that was already quite strange for us.

The orientation of Uranus in space differs from almost all other planets in the Solar System in that its axis of rotation seems to lie on its side. Because of this, the planet's magnetic field is shifted from the geometric center in a rather unusual way. A day on Uranus lasts 17.24 hours, and the magnetosphere of this planet is greatly overloaded during one revolution around its own axis. In some places this magnetic field is almost completely destroyed, while in others reconnection occurs. This constant balancing explains the frequent occurrence of auroras.

Data from the Hubble telescope previously confirmed that auroras are formed on Uranus, very similar to ours on Earth. The magnetosphere, as a rule, creates a protective block, and its thinning is what causes the aurora. It seems that the appearance of gaps in its magnetic field is responsible for such frequent occurrence of aurora on Uranus, and through these “holes” solar wind particles enter the planet’s atmosphere, producing light shows upon contact with gases.

2. Magnetic wormhole


Photo: Smithsonian Magazine

Physicists are constantly conducting very strange experiments. In 2015, they created something completely incredible - a magnetic wormhole. Wormholes are a popular topic among science fiction fans, but this time things may go a little further than theories and spectacular films. According to a well-known hypothesis, a wormhole is capable of connecting two different areas in the space-time continuum. Theoretically, a traveler using such wormholes is able to overcome incredible distances in a matter of seconds.

In 2015, researchers developed a device that is a metal sphere made of several layers of metamaterial, which is unlikely to help us send space expeditions to the other end of the Universe in the near future, but scientists have already used it to create a magnetic wormhole.

Physicists placed a coiled magnetic tube inside this sphere, and then hid the whole device in another magnetosphere. For a moment, the cylinder literally disappeared into nowhere, and then returned to its place again. It did not literally disappear, but simply became invisible to magnetic sensors.

What's interesting about this experiment is that by manipulating electromagnetic energy, a magnetically invisible tunnel was created between the interconnected poles of the magnet. This wormhole created the illusion of separation of opposite poles and thanks to it, “monopoles” appeared, which simply do not exist in nature.

1. Brain control


Photo: Live Science

One of the most alarming and unusual properties of a magnetic field is its ability to control the functioning of the brain. In 2017, scientists conducted a study during which a new discovery was made. Using magnetic fields, experts were able to remotely activate brain cells in experimental mice.

The main target of the impact was the striatum, the part of the brain responsible for the movement of the animal. Incredibly, scientists made rats run, freeze in place and spin in place. The main interest for researchers is the opportunity to understand how the processes responsible for certain behavior and emotions occur in our heads. This will likely tell us where the behavioral parts of the human brain are and help treat conditions such as Parkinson's disease (shaking palsy).

If you consider yourself a conspiracy theorist and are worried that this discovery will give the authorities complete control over us, you can breathe easy. Magnetic fields pass through biological tissue without any consequences. The experiment involved not the most ordinary rats, but animals with microscopic particles of magnets introduced into their brains. These particles were attached to brain cells, after which they were heated using a simulated magnetic field, and tiny magnets forced neurons to fire in such a way that the mouse changed its behavior according to a given scenario.

The Earth protects us from deadly cosmic radiation, and without it, as we know, life could not exist. The movement of liquid iron in the outer core of the planet, the geodynamo phenomenon, generates this field. But how it appeared and was subsequently maintained throughout the history of the Earth is a mystery to scientists. New work published in Nature by a team led by Alexander Goncharov from Carnegie University sheds light on the history of this incredibly important geological formation.

Our planet formed from the solid material that surrounded the Sun in its youth, and over time the densest material, the iron, sank and sank deeper, forming the layers we know about today: the core, the mantle, the crust. Currently, the inner core is solid iron along with other materials that were drawn in during the layering process. The outer core is an alloy of liquid iron, and its movement generates a magnetic field.

A deeper understanding of how heat is conducted in the solid inner core and liquid outer core is needed to piece together the processes by which our planet and its magnetic field evolved—and, more importantly, the energy that maintains a constant magnetic field. But these materials apparently only exist under the most extreme conditions: very high temperatures and very high pressures. It turns out that on the surface their behavior will be completely different.

“We decided that it would be essential to directly measure the thermal conductivity of the core materials under conditions corresponding to the core conditions,” says Goncharov. “Because, of course, we can’t get to the core of the Earth and take samples.”

The scientists used a tool called a diamond anvil cell to simulate the conditions of a planetary core and study how iron conducts heat under these conditions. A diamond anvil cell compresses tiny samples of material between two diamonds, creating extreme pressures deep within the Earth in the laboratory. The laser heats materials to nuclear temperatures.

Using such a "nuclear laboratory", a team of scientists was able to study iron samples at temperatures and pressures that would be found inside planets the size of Mercury to Earth - pressures ranging from 345,000 to 1.3 million normal atmospheres and from 1,300 to 2,700 degrees Celsius - and understand how they conduct heat.

The thermal conductivity of such iron samples was found to be at the lower end of preliminary estimates of the thermal conductivity of the Earth's core - between 18 and 44 watts per meter per degree Kelvin, the units scientists use to measure such things. This suggests that the energy needed to maintain the geodynamo has always been available since the beginning of Earth's history.

“To better understand the thermal conductivity of the core, in the future we will study how non-iron materials that were pulled into the core along with sinking iron affect thermal processes inside our planet,” says Goncharov.

In recent days, a large amount of news about the Earth's magnetic field has appeared on scientific information sites. For example, news that it has been changing significantly recently, or that the magnetic field contributes to the leakage of oxygen from the earth’s atmosphere, or even that cows in pastures are oriented along the lines of the magnetic field. What is a magnetic field and how important is all this news?

The Earth's magnetic field is the area around our planet where magnetic forces operate. The question of the origin of the magnetic field has not yet been completely resolved. However, most researchers agree that the presence of the Earth's magnetic field is at least partly due to its core. The earth's core consists of a solid interior and a liquid exterior. The rotation of the Earth creates constant currents in the liquid core. As the reader may remember from physics lessons, the movement of electric charges results in the appearance of a magnetic field around them.

One of the most common theories explaining the nature of the field, the theory of the dynamo effect, assumes that convective or turbulent movements of a conducting fluid in the core contribute to self-excitation and maintenance of the field in a stationary state.

The earth can be considered as a magnetic dipole. Its south pole is located at the geographic North Pole, and its north pole, respectively, is at the South Pole. In fact, the geographic and magnetic poles of the Earth do not coincide not only in “direction”. The magnetic field axis is tilted relative to the Earth's rotation axis by 11.6 degrees. Since the difference is not very significant, we can use a compass. Its arrow points precisely to the Earth's South Magnetic Pole and almost exactly to the North Geographic Pole. If the compass had been invented 720 thousand years ago, it would have pointed to both the geographic and magnetic north poles. But more on that below.

The magnetic field protects the inhabitants of the Earth and artificial satellites from the harmful effects of cosmic particles. Such particles include, for example, ionized (charged) solar wind particles. The magnetic field changes the trajectory of their movement, directing the particles along the field lines. The necessity of a magnetic field for the existence of life narrows the range of potentially habitable planets (if we proceed from the assumption that hypothetically possible life forms are similar to earthly inhabitants).

Scientists do not rule out that some terrestrial planets do not have a metallic core and, accordingly, lack a magnetic field. Until now, planets made of solid rock, like Earth, were thought to contain three main layers: a solid crust, a viscous mantle, and a solid or molten iron core. In a recent paper, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology proposed the formation of "rocky" planets without a core. If the theoretical calculations of the researchers are confirmed by observations, then to calculate the probability of meeting humanoids in the Universe, or at least something resembling illustrations from a biology textbook, it will be necessary to rewrite them.

Earthlings may also lose their magnetic protection. True, geophysicists cannot yet say exactly when this will happen. The fact is that the Earth's magnetic poles are not constant. Periodically they change places. Not long ago, researchers found that the Earth “remembers” the reversal of the poles. Analysis of such “memories” showed that over the past 160 million years, magnetic north and south have changed places about 100 times. The last time this event occurred was about 720 thousand years ago.

The change of poles is accompanied by a change in the configuration of the magnetic field. During the “transition period,” significantly more cosmic particles that are dangerous to living organisms penetrate to Earth. One of the hypotheses explaining the disappearance of dinosaurs states that the giant reptiles became extinct precisely during the next pole change.

In addition to the “traces” of planned activities to change the poles, researchers noticed dangerous shifts in the Earth’s magnetic field. An analysis of data on his condition over several years showed that in recent months, things began to happen to him. Scientists have not recorded such sharp “movements” of the field for a very long time. The area of ​​concern to researchers is located in the South Atlantic Ocean. The "thickness" of the magnetic field in this area does not exceed a third of the "normal" one. Researchers have long noticed this “hole” in the Earth’s magnetic field. Data collected over 150 years show that the field here has weakened by ten percent over this period.

At the moment, it is difficult to say what threat this poses to humanity. One of the consequences of weakening the field strength may be an increase (albeit insignificant) in the oxygen content in the earth's atmosphere. The connection between the Earth's magnetic field and this gas was established using the Cluster satellite system, a project of the European Space Agency. Scientists have found that the magnetic field accelerates oxygen ions and “throws” them into outer space.

Despite the fact that the magnetic field cannot be seen, the inhabitants of the Earth feel it well. Migratory birds, for example, find their way, focusing on it. There are several hypotheses explaining how exactly they sense the field. One of the latest suggests that birds perceive a magnetic field. Special proteins - cryptochromes - in the eyes of migratory birds are able to change their position under the influence of a magnetic field. The authors of the theory believe that cryptochromes can act as a compass.

In addition to birds, sea turtles use the Earth's magnetic field instead of GPS. And, as an analysis of satellite photographs presented as part of the Google Earth project showed, cows. After studying photographs of 8,510 cows in 308 areas of the world, scientists concluded that these animals preferentially (or from south to north). Moreover, the “reference points” for cows are not geographical, but rather the magnetic poles of the Earth. The mechanism by which cows perceive the magnetic field and the reasons for this particular reaction to it remain unclear.

In addition to the listed remarkable properties, the magnetic field contributes. They arise as a result of sudden changes in the field that occur in remote regions of the field.

The magnetic field was not ignored by supporters of one of the “conspiracy theories” - the theory of a lunar hoax. As mentioned above, the magnetic field protects us from cosmic particles. The "collected" particles accumulate in certain parts of the field - the so-called Van Alen radiation belts. Skeptics who do not believe in the reality of the moon landings believe that astronauts would have received a lethal dose of radiation during their flight through the radiation belts.

The Earth's magnetic field is an amazing consequence of the laws of physics, a protective shield, a landmark and the creator of auroras. If it weren't for it, life on Earth might have looked completely different. In general, if there were no magnetic field, it would have to be invented.

Among the various “doomsday” scenarios, one often appears such as a change in the directions of the Earth’s magnetic field lines. Simply put, when the north magnetic pole is in the southern hemisphere, and vice versa. Let's look at why this is possible and what dangers may arise from this for us.

Why do we need the Earth's magnetic field?

The Earth's magnetic field is a unique phenomenon. Not a single terrestrial planet has anything close. Even the magnetic fields of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are weaker. Only Jupiter is more powerful, but that’s why it’s a giant. Until now, science does not know where the Earth’s magnetic field comes from, or why it is so strong. It is believed that this is somehow connected with the Moon - after all, no other planet except the Earth has such a relatively large satellite, whose mass is only 80 times less than the mass of the planet. But how the Moon generates such a magnetic field near the Earth is still unclear.

One thing we know for sure. Without the magnetic field there would be no life on Earth. Streams of charged cosmic particles entering the vicinity of the Earth from outer space are captured by the magnetic field lines of our planet - its magnetosphere - and do not reach its surface. They remain at an altitude of 500 to 70,000 km above the Earth, forming radiation belts in which astronauts cannot stay for a long time.

If the Earth's magnetic field (geomagnetic field) suddenly disappeared forever, then after some time hard cosmic radiation would lead to the disappearance of all higher life on its surface. Life would only remain in water at a depth of more than ten meters and in deep caves on land.

Geomagnetic field reversals

Since childhood, we have become accustomed to the fact that the compass needle should point north. True, there are magnetic storms and anomalies during which the compass, as they say, goes crazy, but then everything falls into place again. However, the compass was invented only a few centuries ago, and the Earth has existed for billions of years. And it turned out that the current position of the Earth’s magnetic poles is not the only possible one. There were long periods in the history of our planet when the compass needle, once we were there, would point south!

This was discovered by the phenomenon of remanent magnetization in sedimentary rocks in different places on Earth, especially at the bottom of the oceans. Having determined the time of formation of these rocks using different methods, scientists compiled a scale of changes in the polarity of the geomagnetic field.

It turned out that the magnetic poles took their current position on the cardinal points approximately 780 thousand years ago. This last period is called the Brunhes era. And before that, the era of reverse magnetization of Matuyama lasted for approximately one million and 800 thousand years. However, it was not homogeneous. Within it there are at least five episodes of shorter duration - from several thousand to 220 thousand years - when the direction of the magnetic needle would have coincided with the modern one.

Strictly speaking, this current era should be considered the era of reverse magnetization. After all, the geomagnetic field lines now emerge from the pole located in the Southern Hemisphere, therefore this particular pole is the North Magnetic Pole, and the one located in the Northern Hemisphere is the South Magnetic Pole. But in this case, physics gave way to the usual geography, so as not to create confusion among people.

Why is this happening

The reasons for the change in the direction of the geomagnetic field lines remain completely unknown. Science does not yet know whether this change can be predicted using some other geophysical parameters. For example, by changes in the strength of the geomagnetic field or by the movement of the poles. After all, the position of the magnetic poles on the earth’s surface does not remain unchanged. They are moving. Moreover, according to measurements, in recent decades they have been moving faster and faster.

So, if the North (let’s call it that out of habit) magnetic pole in the 1970s drifted at a speed of 10 km per year, then at the beginning of the 21st century it was already 50-60 km per year. In the first years of this century, he left the islands of the Canadian Arctic and headed towards Russia. This year it will cross the 180th meridian and will be closer to Eurasia than to North America.

The strength of the Earth's geomagnetic field, judging by the same residual magnetization - in this case, ceramic products - has been steadily weakening over the past several centuries. Could this indicate an upcoming polarity reversal? In other words, we do not yet know what exactly can portend a change in the Earth’s magnetic poles, or what omens there are for this phenomenon.

Danger for technologically advanced humanity

If the geomagnetic field is excited, as one hypothesis states, by flows of matter in the mantle - the same ones that are responsible for the movement of tectonic plates and mountain building processes - then the change of magnetic poles can be accompanied by catastrophic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. But the most important danger is, as already mentioned, the temporary disappearance of the geomagnetic field during a polarity reversal. According to existing theoretical models, the Earth's magnetic poles will disappear before they switch places. And no one knows for how long.

However, there are reasons for optimism. After all, geomagnetic field reversals have happened on Earth many times, including several dozen times over the past five million years. There were no major extinctions of living creatures during these periods. Therefore, there is reason to believe that such episodes were very short-lived. True, there is another explanation: of the animals, including human ancestors, only those that were accustomed to finding refuge in caves survived these episodes. That is why the remains of primitive people are found mainly there.

The inversion of the geomagnetic field, no matter how short-term it may be, threatens modern humanity due to its fatal dependence on high technology. Magnetic polarity reversal, which will also affect the state of the earth’s ionosphere, will inevitably lead to serious failures of all satellite communications systems, to the impossibility of long-distance radio communications and navigation for aircraft and ships. Our civilization could then, in the blink of an eye, slide into the technical level of the Middle Ages, which threatens with unpredictable social consequences.

Simply put, the main danger for humanity in the event of a change in the magnetic poles is, as in other natural disasters, man himself, the spontaneous and unpredictable behavior of his masses, gripped by mass panic and becoming the subject of manipulation.

And our very ignorance of when and how this can happen shows how little modern science, having looked into the depths of the Universe tens of billions of light years, still knows about what is happening at a depth of just six thousand kilometers under our feet.