Earth's magnetic north is moving from Canada to Russia, and we can finally find out why

Our planet uses its magnetic field as a large layer that just does not hold comfortably. All this shift means that the magnetic north pole is destined to get closer and closer to the Siberian coast over the next decade.

There is no plot behind it, but the geological forces responsible are a mystery. Now we might be a little closer to figuring out what's going on.

Researchers from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom and the Technical University of Denmark analyzed 20 years of satellite data, finding that a monolithic competition between two lobes of different magnetic force near of the nucleus is probably at the origin of the passion for the travel of the poles. .

When the precise magnetic north position of the Earth was first located in 1831, it was directly at the Canadian corner of the Arctic, on the Boothia Peninsula

in the territory of Nunavut.

Since then, new sets of measurements have recorded this point moving north about an average of about 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) each year.

Advanced technology means that we can now carefully monitor the location of the pole with unprecedented precision. Before the 1970s, the position of the magnetic north pole was like a drunken springboard. Since then, he has had a mission, to walk in a straight line, to increase speed.

Since the 1990s, its speed has quadrupled, at a current rate of between 50 and 60 kilometers (about 30 and 37 miles) per year. In late 2017, the pole sprint moved it 390 kilometers (240 miles) from the geographic north pole.

Monitoring of the north magnetic pole drift towards Siberia (Livermore et al., Nature geoscience2020)

In its current trajectory, we can expect it to be between 390 and 660 kilometers (240 and 410 miles) more on its course in ten years, which will bring it closer to the northern limits of the Siberian Sea eastern.

Fast scrolling is a concern for navigation systems that rely on precise location calculations, forcing the US National Center for Geophysical Data. United States To speed up your regular updates to the global magnetic model last year.

What the world really needs is a solid idea of ​​the physical mechanisms behind this displacement, allowing for precise predictions about the magnetic movements of the planet.

So Earth scientists Philip Livermore and Matthew Bayliff of the University of Leeds in the UK and Christopher Finlay of the Technical University of Denmark have reviewed 20 years of geomagnetic data from the 39; ESA Mission Swarm.

The course of the pole is perfectly aligned with two anomalies called negative magnetic fluxes, one deep in Canada and the other below Siberia.

"The importance of these two patches for determining the structure of the field near the magnetic north pole has been well known for several centuries", note the researchers in their recently published report.

These large magnetism lobes develop and contract over time, which has a profound effect on the magnetic field that we perceive on the surface.

Between 1970 and 1999, changes in the interactions between the floating mantle and the dense rotating core of the planet caused the area under Canada to lengthen, reducing the strength of the corresponding magnetic field to fall upward.

"Now, historically, the Canadian patch has won the war and that's why the pole has focused on Canada," said Livermore on BBC Radio 4's Today program. in a recent interview.

"But over the past few decades, the Canadian patch has weakened and the Siberian patch has slightly strengthened, which is why the pole has suddenly accelerated from its historical position."

While that means we can expect the pole to continue competing a little longer, it doesn't tell us specifically where it will stop, how long it will stop or when it could return. .

There is an incredible amount that we do not know about the engine buzzing in the bowels of our planet.

Given that extended geological records To indicate significant fluctuations in its protective magnetic field, we really need to know much more than we do.

We will need more models like this if we are to hope to predict where the poles of our planet will end in the future.

This research was published in Nature geoscience.