Earth’s magnetic north is shifting at unprecedented rate
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Navigators have relied upon it for centuries. More recently it has become an essential aid in everything from smartphone apps to aviation and shipping. The magnetic north pole is the peripatetic point on the Earth’s surface where its magnetic field, created by molten iron churning deep within the planet’s core, points directly downwards.
From the time records were first kept in the 16th century until the late 1990s, the magnetic north pole plotted a fairly stable course as it wandered slowly around what is now the Canadian Arctic.
But then it picked up pace as it plotted a new course northwards towards its geographic equivalent at the top of Earth’s rotational axis. The speed has increased in recent years with magnetic north heading rapidly in the direction of Siberia.
But the latest calculations reveal how magnetic north is shifting position at a rate that is unprecedented in recorded history, racing across the Arctic region at 50 kilometres a year and showing little sign of slowing down.
This year it passed within 390km, or 3 degrees, of the geographic north pole and crossed the Greenwich meridian for the first time.
“The movement since the 1990s is much faster than at any time for at least four centuries. We really don’t know much about the changes in the core that’s driving it,” said Ciaran Beggan, a geomagnetic specialist at the British Geological Survey.
The findings were contained in the updated version of the World Magnetic Model released this week by its joint compilers, the BGS and US National Centers for Environmental Information.
