What is the difference between geomagnetic north and magnetic north?

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What is the difference between geomagnetic north and magnetic north?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

As far as I can tell (someone please correct me if I’m wrong), geomagnetic north is the same as magnetic north — “geomagnetic” is just the term we use for the Earth’s magnetic field. I think the term you are looking for is *geographic* north vs. magnetic / geomagnetic north. If so:

The geographic north and south poles are based on the rotation of the earth: If you drew a line through the center of the Earth around which the earth rotated, it would emerge through the geographic north and south poles. If you imagine someone spinning a basketball on their finger, their finger would be touching the geographic south pole, and geographic north would be the exact opposite point.

Magnetic north and south are determined by the earth’s magnetic field. Magnetic north is directly measured by a compass. You could imagine this like a big bar magnet going through the center of the planet. The magnetic field of the Earth behaves exactly like one would on a big magnet, so we can measure its north and south poles the same way. Since the field is created by the motion of molten metals in the planet’s core, it slowly drifts around and doesn’t exactly line up with the geographic poles.