Earth’s magnetic poles won’t flip any time soon

This will not be the first time for the planet’s magnetic poles to flip, as they already have many times in the planet’s evolution and have the tendency to occur at random intervals. “The results fit expectations that the intensity of the earth’s magnetic field should be twice at the equator”, they said.

Researchers also stated that if you take a constant present-day constant rate, it will take another 1000 years for the field to drops to its long-term average.

The intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field has been weakening for the last couple of hundred years, leading some scientists to think that its polarity might be about to flip. This new study, made by researchers from Columbia University and MIT published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests we can stop worrying about that. Since these rocks contain iron, they tend to align themselves with Earth’s magnetic field, The Monitor Daily reported. This magnetic field prevents the planet against the sun’s harmful cosmic rays and solar wind. This new study reveals how Earth’s geomagnetic field is decreasing rapidly however the effects are not long term yet as scientists believe that this field can even fix and build itself in the opposite direction any time. There will be an increase in harmful solar radiations, which could lead to serious health outcomes. When the field is weaker, more radiation gets through, which can disrupt power grids and satellite communications.

Despite this, the scientists who conducted the study noted that this is not an indicator that the fields will flip soon.

The weakening intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field may actually be coming down to normal rather than approaching a reversal, a new study says.

Scientists are now trying to predict this polarity switch and when the intensity of the geomagnetic field is below its historical and long term average, there might be an impending swap soon. However, there are debates about whether reversals of the magnetic field in the distant past had any connection to species extinctions.