Earth's Magnetic Field?

Question

Hi i was talking to my friend, and she mentioned how earth's magnetic field is bound to end every certain amount of years. the same way they belived dinosaurs became extinct, does anyone know if this is true? that our magnetic field that saves us from the debri that bombards earth is going to shut off anytime soon?

Answer 1

The Earth's magnetic field has reversed polarity many times in the past, according to the magnetic traces left in certain rocks. There are signs it is in the process of doing that again either right now or soon. Where soon is in geological terms, like maybe in 10,000 years or right now. And I have heard numbers like 6,000 years for how long the change would take to happen once it started. After the next change, magnetic compasses would point south instead of north. And during the changeover the Earth may well have little or no magnetic field. We don't really know how much more radiation would reach the ground, but it would probably not be much more because the atmosphere blocks a lot of radiation too.

Answer 2

The field does not end, but it reverses its north-south polarity every now and again.

There are a lot of crackpot theories published about what will happen during the next polarity reversal, but the fact is that there have been lots of reversals in the past, and absolutely no traces of any of the catastrophic results of it which the crackpots are predicting. It is impossible to understand why they keep publishing their nonsense.

Answer 3

It doesn't end, but it does flip, i.e magnetic north becomes magnetic south and visa versa. dunno what the effects on modern technology would be if any.

They know this by looking at the mid atlantic ridge, the rocks that are created are sometimes polarised magnetically in opposite directions depending on the time they were created.

Pretty cool.

Answer 4

It won't end, but it may reverse polarity, it has happened many times in the past.