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Magnetic north pole
We distinguish the magnetic and geographic North Pole on Earth. While the geographic North Pole is located just at the northern end of the Earth's axis, the North Magnetic Pole is where the compass needle points. But these two poles do not have the same coordinates and are several hundred kilometers away from each other. Why is that?
The difference between geographic and magnetic North Pole
The geographic north pole is located at the intersection of the Earth's axis with the northern Earth's surface. It is the antipode to the geographic South Pole and is located at the fixed position 90 ° 0 'N, ie in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.
The magnetic north pole is located where the magnetic field lines of the Earth's magnetic field enter the Earth's interior vertically to the Earth's surface and therefore does not lie on the geographic North Pole. According to physical laws, the geographic North Pole is actually a magnetic South Pole, as a compass consists of a magnet and attract only unlike poles. In addition, conventional compasses can no longer orient to the north in a radius of 2000 kilometers around the magnetic pole, because the horizontal lines of the earth's magnetic field are too weak for a display.
Due to the differences in definition, the magnetic north pole, ie the point in the northern hemisphere, is also called the Arctic magnetic pole (opposite to the Antarctic magnetic pole). It was first identified by the English navigator James Clark Ross in 1831 at the coordinates 70 ° 5 'N and 96 ° 28' W and was at that time near a peninsula off Canada. The interesting thing is that the position of the magnetic North Pole is not rigid, but changes weekly by about 1 kilometer. But why this hike?
Why does the magnetic north pole migrate?
Although the magnetic north pole is still in the Arctic Ocean on the map, it has not been in its original location for a long time. Currently he is moving in the direction of Russia or Siberia. The reason lies hidden inside the earth, where 5000 degrees of hot matter is constantly circulating and flowing into orbits that are magnetically charged.
Although scientists regularly make predictions about the continued movement of the magnetic north pole, the models show that the pole does not have a constant displacement. According to researchers, the magnetic field of the Earth has reversed several times in the course of the 4.6 billion years, which can be proven by iron deposits in various strata of the earth.Because of the rapid change in position of the magnetic north pole in recent times, some geophysicists assume that another pole shift is imminent. The magnetic north pole would migrate to the southern hemisphere. The consequences are difficult to outline, but the Earth's magnetism (based on the electrical current flow in the Earth's core) could be severely disturbed. That in turn would have negative effects on electronics, power grids or navigation.