Topic: Magnetic Polar Shifts?

[-<WillyP>-]

Magnetic Polar Shifts Causing Massive Global Superstorms - Salem-News.Com

What do you think?  According to this article, polar shifts happen erratically and have happened in as little as 50,000 years, with an average of 500,000, yet the last one was about 780,000 years ago.  Large 'superstorms' and other things such as the rapid acceleration of polar shift, are pointed to as evidence a shift is in the near future.

[NUMBERZero]

Damn. I always had an idea of setting up the biggest super magnets at the poles to stabilize the magnetic current. Of course, it would cost trillions of dollars.


When did they say that it would flip? Did it say it anywhere?

[Kaiaatzl]

The flip is a few thousand years overdue actually.

But if it happened, we'd know.  All electronic devices would stop working.
This was a big part of the premise of that book I mentioned I was writing on the DBB actually.

It was on the Quirks and Quarks "Doomsday Scenarios" episode.

I'd say if it didn't happen during our grandparent's generation, or our parent's generation (though, we technically don't know that yet ), it's very unlikely to happen during our generation.

[DarkWing]

   The End is coming!

[Scyphi]

This reminds me of the movie The Core. That, and an episode from EUReKA, both of which dealt with similar subjects.

If does happen, I'd somehow would not be surprised if me in little ol' Idaho got spared from it, as that seems to be the ongoing trend as of late. Nothing that eventful weather-wise ever seems to happen in Idaho.

[Alieo]

I tell you what... if the poles shift in such a way that Antarctica becomes a tropical paradise, I'll be the FIRST one there for real estate dibs!

[-<WillyP>-]

That would require the axis of rotation to shift.  If that happened, that dramatically, within the span of a human lifetime, I am not so sure we would survive.

[Matthew]

The north and south poles will still be poles. Just the opposite poles. So they'll still be freezing cold.

[Kaiaatzl]

Technically the magnetic poles don't match up exactly with the geographic poles.  (The magnetic south pole is in Hudson's Bay in Canada).  But yeah you're mostly right about the cold part.

[Teh poke man]

I suppose I should start backing up my stuff onto optical media now

[NUMBERZero]

Is it remotely possible that a lead box could save some things?

And what about the Library of Congress? That place stores 167 Terabytes of data and I hear that they are about to copy all Tweeter messages into it!

[Alieo]

This thread reminds me of a show I listen to. It's called "Coast to Coast AM" and it's hosted by George Noory. Anyone ever heard of it? They talk about stuff like this all the time. The show comes on at midnight central time and I always listen to this program as I fall asleep and set the sleep timer to my radio.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com

Edit/Add-On: Do you think that the reason we may be heading into an ice age as a result of this magnetic shift is kind of like the earth's defense mechanism against the solar radiation that the earth is going to be bombarded with when the magnetic field temporarily disappears?

[Kaiaatzl]

Rule of thumb - if it doesn't make sense then probably not.
The planet is not sentient -- i.e. it doesn't care about protecting itself or what's on it.  There would have to be an external factor that would go along with the magnetic shift and cause an ice age.
And also I'm pretty sure the magnetic field wouldn't disappear in the process.  I could be wrong, but judging from past magnetic shifts... (They didn't wipe out all life on the planet, or I wouldn't be typing this).

[Scyphi]

The planet is not sentient

Well, that's actually a subject of debate with some people. For your reading pleasure, see Gaia hypothesis.

This isn't to say I support the idea, I just thought it was an interesting read.

[VANGUARD]

I believe in what will happen in the Bible. To not make this get into such a spiritual/religious conversation, I just believe other things are going to happen. Since it hasn't, this I don't believe is true.
Same thing with 12/12/12, Dec 12th at 12:12, or something, lots of 12's. My theory is this started as a joke and then it made others nervous. sort of like that radio program years ago, "War of the Worlds" or something.

in a nutshell, I wouldn't hold my breath on this. If I did, I'd be dead holding it 
sorry for a dumb joke