• Question: What Will Polar Shift's Do To Our Earth?

    Asked by alexjhill to Rebecca, Simon, Wei on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Rebecca Handley

      Rebecca Handley answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Polar shift is another one of those ‘the world will end in 2012’ theories, but it has a bit more scientific backing, although from what I can see it is still a theory! But if the theories are correct, the main changes it would have would be reversal of certain tides and currents, it would interfere with weather patterns – both of which could cause ice ages in parts of Europe. But all of the changes would take a very long time to happen, over 5000 years. We know from fossil evidence that polar shift has occurred before, but its very unpredictable and likely not to happen to thousands of years.

    • Photo: Wei Xun

      Wei Xun answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Hi Alex!

      Actually the true magnetic poles of Earth are not physical places, but they “wander” around a bit quite often as the Earth’s magnetic fields are constantly changing, you would need a compass when you are near the poles to see if you have found the true location at the time.

      If you are talking about the reversal in the polarity, ie North-South switch, which scientists think happens every 400,000 years or so on average, but not anytime soon. I suppose migratory animals like birds that use magnetic fields to navigate might get quite confused for a while, I’m not sure about the tides as they are caused by the moon’s gravitational pull, which will not change. And the earth won’t suddenly start turning the other way round, so please don’t worry.

      Here’s a view from NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/29dec_magneticfield.html

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