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Q: Effects of Geomagnetic Reversal ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   2 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Effects of Geomagnetic Reversal
Category: Reference, Education and News > General Reference
Asked by: probonopublico-ga
List Price: $2.00
Posted: 28 Sep 2002 03:36 PDT
Expires: 28 Oct 2002 02:36 PST
Question ID: 70055
It's millions of years since the last round, so another could start
anytime.

Although it won't happen overnight, what effects can reasonably be
foreseen, like planes, boats, birds and fish getting lost; and bank
overdrafts being turned into deposits.

And shouldn't the UN pass a resolution to prevent it happening?
Answer  
Subject: Re: Effects of Geomagnetic Reversal
Answered By: willie-ga on 04 Oct 2002 05:05 PDT
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
Hi there

An impending magnetic, or pole, reversal was one of the hot topics of
the 80's when the book "Pole Shift" by John White was a best seller
and it was thought that it might happen any time now.

As with most prophesies around the end of the twentieth century, the
sense of impending doom has lessened and the pole shift "warning" has
been downgraded to a pole shift "watch"

But this is one of those things that are very probably going to happen
at some point "soon" in the earth's history....it's just that mankind
has a very small view of the overall earth clock, and to the earth,
"soon" could mean anytime in the next 100,000 years, so don't hold
your breath. Scientists currently tell us that pole shifts occur, on
average, once every 500,000 years. The last pole shift was 780,000
years ago so we are overdue for one (just as we are overdue for a big
asteroid strike, and for a super volcano eruption....just hope they
don't all happen at once!)

The planet's geologic record has very clear evidence that pole shifts
have occurred many times in the past and there is no doubt that they
will occur again. ( The phenomenon referred to here as a "pole shift"
is not the shifting of the crust by thousands of miles, but rather,
changes in the magnetic field of the planet. Some unscrupulous writers
in the 70s and 80s tried to imply that the continents were going to
start sliding about like melting ice on a hot plate, but that's not
current scientific thinking.)

However, its not all good news. Until recently, it was thought that
pole shifts were a gradual process. But recent evidence from  studying
the alignment of iron particles in lava flows found one case where the
Earth's magnetic field shifted 80 degrees in 13 days.

What would a pole shift do to life on Earth?
 
Compasses would obviously be effected as would all navigational
instruments which depend on them. So shipping, air-flight and all GPS
equipment, including satellites, would be off-line until we figured
out how to cope with the reversal. Global trade would be brought
quickly to a standstill, and the winners would probably turn out to be
those that remembered how to navigate in the old ways, such as nomadic
people and sea-farers on old sailing ships

Migratory birds, fish and animals would become confused. This might
lead to them wandering far from current feeding and breeding grounds,
into areas not suitable for them, and could quite easily be concieved
as leading to mass extinctions, habitat destruction and loss of life,
both animal and human.

While this latter theory is controversial, scientists have already
shown that  insects can actually be killed as a result of fluctuations
in magnetic fields around them, and the same experimenters have shown
similar, though smaller, effects in humans, leaving them dazed and
confused. If you consider the number of humans involved in operating
machinery that would be life-threatening in the case of faulty
operation, you can see that global effects would probably be large.

In addition large scale fluctuations in magnetic fields would knock
out power suppliers, and all electro-magnetic communication could
concievably be disrupted for long periods of time.

A rapid magnetic reversal would include very large scale fluctuations
in the Earth's magnetic field, which extends out 60,000 km from the
surface of the planet. It is also thought by many doomsayers that a
diminished magnetic field which shields us from energetic particles
emitted continuously by the sun would leave us vulnerable to the
harmful effects of magnetic storms spawned by solar flares and sun
spots. This would probably be hazardous to our health :)

BUT the magnetic field does not protect the earth from solar flares.
It simply
guides the ions of the solar wind to the polar regions, where their
energetic collisions with the upper atmosphere produce the luminous
plasma
known as the Northern and Southern Lights (Aurora Borealis and Aurora
Australis).  It is the earth's atmosphere that actually prevents the
solar
wind from reaching the surface, and that is independent of the
magnetic field.

It is thought by some geologists that a rapid switch in the magnetic
field could lead to stresses in rock strata and lead to major
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, with the possible scenario of the
"Ring of Fire" all going off at once and sending the world into
nuclear winter.

So, if you consider a world with no TV, radio, telephones (fixed or
mobile), computers, shop-tills, no planes,no ships, no radar, no air
traffic control, where weapons of mass destruction were likely to go
off without human intervention, and nuclear subs suddenly started
spontaneously exploding while aged power stations lost all their
regulatory barriers, you'll get an idea of the possibilities. Think of
all the disasters they were warning about for the so called "Millenium
Bug" in 2000, then imagine them all actually happening.
Then imagine the earth shaking, hot ash falling on your head, a tidal
wave approaching, and a migratory herd of Wildebeest turning up on
your doorstep.

As for the UN....they'd pass a resolution against it, but it would
happen anyway. But what else is new?

Hope that answers your question

Willie


Pole Shift: Predictions and Prophecies of the Ultimate Disaster
by John Warren White, Alan Vaughan (Designer)
Paperback: 431 p, A.R.E. Press; ISBN: 0876041624; 3rd edition
(February 1988)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0876041624/qid=1033732978


Prophecy News Updates on Pole Reversal (he got it wrong!)
http://www.wisdomofsolomon.com/rhp-news.html

Google search Strategy
://www.google.com/search?q=%22pole+reversal%22+effects
probonopublico-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars
Hi, Willie

Brilliant!

Very much more than I expected ... I'll now pose a supplementary for
you to answer ... to up your reward.

Regards

Bryan

Comments  
Subject: Re: Effects of Geomagnetic Reversal
From: alienintelligence-ga on 28 Sep 2002 04:57 PDT
 
Actually it seems that the last reversal was more 
like 0.75 million years ago. Planes and boats were
not adversely affected at the time. Unfortunately
no one was around to record the effects on poultry.
[ http://www.sigmaxi.org/amsci/articles/96articles/Fuller.html ]

The magnetic North pole is in constant flux.
[ http://www.netlondon.com/news/1999-24/716B07C47B62F416802.html ]

And due for a change soon... 
[ http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,748510,00.html ]

either a reversal or just possibly going away forever.
[ http://www.cosmiverse.com/space08240103.html ]

The UN actually moved to pass a resolution forbidding
the relocation of the magnetic North Pole, unfortunately
not enough votes were present. It seems many were unable
to make it due to their compasses being waaay off.

-AI
Subject: Re: Effects of Geomagnetic Reversal
From: robertskelton-ga on 28 Sep 2002 13:26 PDT
 
It has already begun - see these news items...

http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=1721
http://2012.antville.org/topics/Cataclysms/33115/

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