The magnetic field that surrounds Earth is getting
weaker, as the magnetic poles get ready to flip. The
pole reversal happens at regular intervals, but it's
coming at a bad time, since the magnetic field protects
us from radiation from the sun, and solar flares are at
a historic high right now.
As the sun revolves, the sunspot activity that has
temporarily faced away from the Earth has started
directly affecting us again. Giant sunspots 486 and 488
are moving into a position where they can once again
direct solar explosions towards the Earth. Meanwhile,
sunspot 484 has developed a complex magnetic field,
meaning it can also give out X-class solar flares, so
strong sunspot activity is predicted for the next few
days.
We can tell the history of the Earth's magnetic field
by analyzing clay pots from the distant past. During
high-temperature firing, iron minerals in the clay
record the exact state of Earth's magnetic field at that
precise moment. Geologist John Shaw says, "When we
plot the results from the ceramics, we see a rapid fall
as we come toward the present day. The rate of change is
higher over the last 300 years than it has been for any
time in the past 5,000 years. It's going from a strong
field down to a weak field, and it's doing so very
quickly."
At the present rate, our magnetic field could be gone
within a few hundred years, exposing the planet to
blasts of charged particles from space. Scientists think
this is what may have happened to Mars, which suffered a
magnetic crisis four billion years ago and has had no
magnetic field—and probably no life—ever since.
From looking at ancient lava flows in Hawaii,
researchers know that the Earth's magnetic poles have
reversed in the past. Geologist Mike Fuller says,
"When we go back about 700,000 years, we find an
incredible phenomenon. Suddenly the rocks are magnetized
backwards. Instead of them being magnetized to the north
like today's field, they are magnetized to the
south." A pole flip seems to happen every 250,000
years, meaning we're long overdue for another one.
We don't know how much weaker the Earth's magnetic
field will become, as the poles get ready to reverse, or
when it will begin to strengthen again. While we know
this has happened before, it's never happened at a time
when human civilizations had to deal with it. Meanwhile,
solar storms, which should be diminishing by now, keep
getting stronger.