Earth’s North Magnetic Pole is Lurching towards Siberia

Surprisingly, the North Magnetic Pole of Earth is moving away from the Canadian Arctic.

According to the latest report, Earth’s North Magnetic Pole has wandered so much from its position that the magnetic field of the entire globe has become outdated. The current representation, which was recently updated in 2015, has been replaced by a new model that will be published officially on 30^th January 2019. The name given to this updated model is World Magnetic Model and it will help a wide array of navigation once it is available to the general public. This model was originally designed to stay valid until 2020 but the rapid movement of the North Magnetic Pole of Earth forced the geologists to amend it earlier than that.

The World Magnetic Model is accompanied by some other useful models in providing navigational assistance to aircraft, ships, and other instruments. One of them is known as the International Geomagnetic Reference Field. It tracks the difference between the Magnetic North Pole of Earth and the Geographical North Pole (declination). Scientists use this declination to convert between a true bearing and magnetic bearing across all points of the globe. Consequently, antennas, ships, aircraft, and other devices can be oriented.

The idea of the wandering of Earth’s North Magnetic Pole is not new to humanity. In the 1800s, researchers figured out, for the first time, that the magnetic north is moving. Studies conducted in the mid-1990s revealed that the speed of this movement has increased considerably, from 15 kilometers annually to 55 kilometers a year. Last year, the North Magnetic Pole of Earth entered the Eastern Hemisphere by crossing over the International Date Line.

The 2015 report on the World Magnetic Model suggested that the Earth’s liquid-iron outer core, called the Core Field, is largely responsible for these erratic movements of the magnetic north. The researchers acknowledged that there are other factors as well which play a role in this but their influence is quite small. Some of these factors include electric currents generated by the flow of seawater and magnetic minerals in the upper mantle and the crust of the planet. The fact that no one has ever seen the core field makes it a difficult entity to explain. Despite that, Ronald Merrill, an Emeritus Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, tried to elaborate that in the following words:

“Picture a bar magnet at the center of the Earth that has two poles: north and south. This magnet represents about 75 percent of the intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field at the surface today. In reality, electric currents and not a giant bar magnet in Earth’s core create the magnetic field, but it’s easier to think of it in terms of magnets.”

He mentioned that the intensity of this bar magnet is decreasing continuously at a rate of 7% per 100 years and it is moving towards Canada at slightly less than 10 degrees. Merrill commented that the remaining 25% of the magnetic field is coming from another source. You can imagine it as bar magnets that are moving around. When this central magnet loses its intensity, the field generated by these moving magnets will gain more influence over the Earth’s magnetic field. He concluded that by saying,

“And that’s what’s causing this field to move in the direction [of Siberia].”

Scientists haven’t been able to find any logical explanation for this shifting of the North Magnetic Pole of Earth towards Siberia. One of the popular ideas is that a high-speed jet of liquid iron under Canada is responsible for this rapid movement. Phil Livermore, a Geomagnetist at the University of Leeds, indicated that this jet is weakening the magnetic field beneath Canada which is allowing the magnetic north to lurch towards Siberia. He said,

“The location of the north magnetic pole appears to be governed by two large-scale patches of the magnetic field, one beneath Canada and one beneath Siberia. The Siberian patch is winning the competition.”