Earth's magnetic poles could start to flip. What happens then?

[rangerrebew]

Earth's magnetic poles could start to flip. What happens then?
December 7, 2018 by Jonathan O'callaghan,   

As Earth's magnetic shield fails, so do its satellites. First, our communications satellites in the highest orbits go down. Next, astronauts in low-Earth orbit can no longer phone home. And finally, cosmic rays start to bombard every human on Earth.

This is a possibility that we may start to face not in the next million years, not in the next thousand, but in the next hundred. If Earth's magnetic field were to decay significantly, it could collapse altogether and flip polarity – changing magnetic north to south and vice versa. The consequences of this process could be dire for our planet.

Most worryingly, we may be headed right for this scenario.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-12-earth-magnetic-poles-flip.html#jCp

[Wingnut]

More reason less hype here:

https://www.livescience.com/63414-magnetic-field-rapid-reversal.html

[Sanguine]

What happens?  We all get lost on the way to work? Oh, no, it's Y2K all over again!

[Free Vulcan]

It doesn't look like it will end all live on earth. Then again it could play havoc with electronic devices, but a solar storm can do that even if the field is at full strenght.

Better that then a real pole shift, as in the Earth spinning on a new axis running from Rio de Janiero to the opposite side somewhere in SE Asia.

[mountaineer]

Raise fuel taxes! Ban coal-fired power plants! The sky is falling!

[Wingnut]

I have always taken stock in the age old saying in situations like this.  "The planet will be fine but the inhabitants may be f**ked.  What you gonna do."

[truth_seeker]

Earth's magnetic poles could start to flip. What happens then?
December 7, 2018 by Jonathan O'callaghan,   


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-12-earth-magnetic-poles-flip.html#jCp

What happens then?

Raise taxes and enact regulations, of course.

[Gefn]

I have always taken stock in the age old saying in situations like this.  "The planet will be fine but the inhabitants may be f**ked.  What you gonna do."

Well it will happen quickly I think so that might be a good thing. Personally I don’t believe this will happen. It’s going to take millions of years.

@Suppressed what say you?

[mystery-ak]

 

[Dexter]

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150323-how-long-will-life-on-earth-last

Could Earth's magnetic field eventually disappear? Not any time soon, says Richard Harrison at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

For that to happen the core would have to completely solidify. Currently only the inner core is solid, while the outer core is liquid. "[The inner core] grows about a millimetre a year," says Harrison, and the molten outer core is 2,300 km thick.

So the inner core grows about a kilometer every million years.