Earth's Magnetic Field Fading

[Guest guest]

And all our leaders can say is "get used to it" …A revolution is long overdue.

 

Report: Earth's magnetic field fading

 

Slight chance of flipping magnetic poles

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The strength of the Earth's magnetic field has decreased 10 percent over the past 150 years, raising the remote possibility that it may collapse and later reverse, flipping the planet's poles for the first time in nearly a million years, scientists said.

 

At that rate of decline, the field could vanish altogether in 1,500 to 2,000 years, said Jeremy Bloxham of Harvard University.

 

Hundreds of years could pass before a flip-flopped field returned to where it was 780,000 years ago. But scientists at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union cautioned that scenario is an unlikely one.

 

"The chances are it will not," Bloxham said Thursday. "Reversals are a rare event."

 

Instead, the weakening, measured since 1845, could represent little more than an "excursion," or lull, which can last for hundreds of years, said John Tarduno of the University of Rochester.

 

Such a lull could still have significant effects, especially in regions where the weakening is most pronounced.

 

Over the southern Atlantic Ocean, a continued weakening of the magnetic field has diminished the shielding effect it has locally in protecting the Earth from the natural radiation that bombards our planet from space, scientists said.

 

As a result, satellites in low-Earth orbit are left vulnerable to that radiation as they pass over the region, known as the South Atlantic anomaly.

 

Among the satellites that have fallen prey to the harmful effects was a Danish satellite designed, ironically, to measure the Earth's magnetic field, Bloxham said.

 

The weakening -- if coupled with a subsequently large influx of radiation in the form of protons streaming from the sun -- can also affect the chemistry of the atmosphere, said Charles Jackman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

 

That can lead to significant but temporary losses of atmospheric ozone, he said.

 

ancient paztriot

[Kulapavana]

Increase in cosmic radiation penetration to the surface could negatively affect fertility rate in humans (and other living forms as well) leading to drop or at least stabilization of population. AIDS seems to be working in a similar direction.

[Gauracandra]

There is an interesting idea for space development called a space elevator. Basically it would require super strong material to create a tether cable hundreds of miles into space. There would be three benefits. First, you could ride an elevator into space to move large quantities of materials. It would simply slowly climb up the cable. Second, the tether could be used to slingshot space ships out into space. Essentially a ship would connect to the tether and would be spun around as the earth spun, and then released. Third, and perhaps most interesting, is that as the cable moved through parts of the atmosphere it would generate large quantities of energy. You would have a wire extending through the atmosphere, and 24 hours a day spinning through earth's magnetic field to generate clean energy. Of course the material hasn't been created yet, but there is research into what is called carbon nanotubes, that apparently can make material far stronger and lighter than steel.

[Kulapavana]

I have read about this project. even if they managed to produce sufficiently long carbon nanotube structures, they would not be strong enough to withstand the dynamic loads from high winds alone. I also seem to remember a story in one of the Puranas about asuras building a stairway to the higher planets and getting smashed by Indra /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Gauracandra]

There is also the story of the tower of babel. Still, it is a pretty interesting idea. If you could tap into the 24hour spinning of the earth to generate energy you'd have a perfect supply of clean, and cheap (once built) energy. Also, the tethering idea to slingshot things into space is interesting.