What Would Actually Happen In a Magnetic Pole Shift?
What would happen if the Earth’s magnetic poles literally flipped upside down? If north was south and south was north? Would it just be our compasses going awry or would this result in a catastrophic end for the citizens of Planet Earth? Would a pole shift be the end of humanity?
It depends on who you ask.
For example, the UK Daily Mail describes this horrific scene:
This sounds like the plot for a disaster movie: an invisible magnetic force-field that defends life on Earth against killer rays from space goes awry. Blasts of radiation destroy our satellite communications and bring the world’s electricity supplies crashing down.
Chaos reigns. Human cancer cases multiply as unshielded radiation from the sun devastates people’s DNA. Billions of creatures the world over die because their ability to migrate becomes fatally confused by changes in our planet’s magnetic field.
Ultimately, Earth’s atmosphere itself could be blown away by fierce solar winds, as happened long ago to our sister planet Mars when its magnetic field dissipated.
But hold the popcorn. This is not a sci-fi movie. Leading scientists warn that this may really happen, because of an imminent revolution at the Earth’s core. (source)
Meanwhile, Science 20 rebuts the doomsday scenario.
If we get a magnetic pole reversal, then from studies of previous reversals and modeling, the main risk is increased UV as a result of the ozone layer damaged by repeated solar storms. It would mean that you need to wear more sunblock cream on sunny days…
…The risks from solar storms are always present, whether it’s a magnetic reversal or not. The main risk of a solar storm is of GPS satellites glitching for hours, recovering once it is over – and of power cuts.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
