I hear people talking about the earths magnetic poles reversing but how exactly could/would that happen?
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It’s happened before. We know. Layers of rock containing materials with magnetic properties hold information about the earth’s magnetic poles when that layer of rock was placed. We’ve seen north and south magnets swap sides over time.
Earth’s molten core is made of mostly iron, which is magnetic. With the way the earth spins, it’s caused the north/south of said magnet to align itself about with the axis of rotation of said earth. However it’s also still a liquid and as such unstable. From the previous historical records we know that which end is north and south can, and occasionally do, swap.
Nobody can be 100% sure, but based on past results, and variation in the poles measured over time, we feel like we might be due for another event sooner than expected.
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