[Turtle]

___I left the 'which pole' question ambiguous in the title as we have good science to support magnetic pole reversal, but also the view of some people that the Earth's physical poles of rotation have and or may reverse.
___As I understand it we now have due a magnetic reversal & already in the Southern hemisphere an anomolous N magnetic region is growing.
___Just thinking out loud here; if the Earth's magnetic field is dragged around & electrically connected to the core, is it unreasonable to think a reorientation of the magnetic field may likewise drag the core around physically? Never? Always? Sometimes & depending?

[Jay-qu]

I dont think it would be strong enough to move much matter - at least not on the scale you may be thinking (total world destruction)
But like we discussed it before the bigger worry is that if it lets down completely before it switches, then we would be vulnerable to all of the suns harmful radiation.

[HydrogenBond]

The reversal of the magnetic field has occurred in the past and creates a problem for the iron core theory of the earth. It is assumed that the magnetic field is connected to convection in the liquid iron around the solid iron core, which is reasonable. But a reversal of the magnetic field would imply that the direction of the convection is changing. It was fairly recently demonstrated by NASA that the core of the earth is moving a little faster than the surface. To reverse the convection within the liquid iron, with the solid core continuing to spin forward faster than the rotational speed of the earth's surface, creates a situation where the magnetic field should not be able to reverse.

Try this exeriment for oneself. Spin a cylinder in a beaker of water. Eddies will form around the spinning cylinder and the entire glass of water will begin to follow the direction of spin. One will wait forever to see the eddies change their direction of rotation. They will not periodically reverse. If the core was moving at the same speed as the surface it might be possible, somehow. Although to me the iron core is still illogical.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by HydrogenBond

...
Try this exeriment for oneself. Spin a cylinder in a beaker of water. Eddies will form around the spinning cylinder and the entire glass of water will begin to follow the direction of spin. One will wait forever to see the eddies change their direction of rotation. They will not periodically reverse. If the core was moving at the same speed as the surface it might be possible, somehow. Although to me the iron core is still illogical.

___I see a problem with the analogy inasmuch as Earth & its core have a more-or-less spherical shape; moreover the Earth precesses (wobbles).
___On one of the science shows I saw on the topic, they showed a computer simulation which produced similar islands of reversed polarity to what we now see, as well as total field reversals. They did not say the physical poles moved, just the magnetic poles.

[Justin]

Could this just be an effect caused by the suns magnetic poles shifting, has any one looked?

And all ways look on the bright side - once it's happening the aurora could randomly appear any where on earth, some thing I've always wanted to see but never had the good fortune.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Justin

Could this just be an effect caused by the suns magnetic poles shifting, has any one looked?

And all ways look on the bright side - once it's happening the aurora could randomly appear any where on earth, some thing I've always wanted to see but never had the good fortune.

___It isn't clear to me that the Sun's role is fully understood in regard to its electro-magnetic link to Earth's field(s). Maybe Frank M has some light to shed on this for us; he is discussing the piezo-electric Earth here at Hypography.
http://hypography.com/forums/physics...ml?=#post18774

___As the magnetic field strength appears to decline during the reversals, I wouldn't expect any aroura.

[InfiniteNow]

I actually own this episode on DVD. It's by far the most detailed and easy to understand explanation I've seen:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teacher..._magnetic.html

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

I actually own this episode on DVD. It's by far the most detailed and easy to understand explanation I've seen:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teacher..._magnetic.html

___Yep; that's the show I watched. In reviewing your link I see the summary lists;

Originally Posted by PBS

discusses how cooling of Earth's core may be the cause of the weakening magnetic field.

___I wonder then if Earth's core is cooling, is volcanic acitivity really rising? If so, doesn't that seem contrary?
___Great link Infinite.

[Turtle]

___Here's a link to a very good thread here at Hypography on Earth's electrical nature by Frank M.
http://hypography.com/forums/earth-s...recursors.html

If you're still around Frank, do you have any input on the pole reversal in regard to your study of Earth conductivity?

[Jay-qu]

ok so i read a good artical about this today, it says that never during a period of pole reversal would we be totally void of a magnetic field. What happens is that extra poles start cropping up around the planet, as many as 6-8 at a time! at the points of these poles radiation from the sun can be a problem so if one ended up over a populated area then there could be trouble. It also went on to say that times of faster evolution in animals happened during periods of pole reversal.