

Earth's poles expected to flip soon - samridh90
http://www.iflscience.com/environment/earth-s-magnetic-field-about-flip

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simonblack
Interesting situation. Do we redefine the current magnetic south-pole
phenomena to maintain the present compass and mapping infrastructure (in other
words, the current south-seeking needle becomes the new north-seeking needle)
or do we redefine our maps and naming to follow the current compass
infrastructure. (The compass will now point south instead of north, so
therefore the current South Pole becomes the new North Pole.)

Almost certainly, we will choose the first option, as it permits the least
number of changes. We wouldn't be stupid enough the maintain the compass so
that the North Magnetic Pole is located close to the Earth's South Pole in
Antarctica. Or would we??

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dragonwriter
iflscience is sometimes interesting, but often (as here) ludicrously
sensationalistic clickbait.

There's a couple major misrepresentations here; while 450,000 is an often-
stated average, its important to note that there is no evidence of
periodicity, so the idea that the planet would be "overdue" for a reversal is
misguided.

The other cited evidence for an imminent shift is drop in the strength of the
Earth's magnetic fields, but major variations in field strength appear without
pole reversals.

The actual BBC Earth article [0] that IFLS gives a "hat tip" to as its source
is _not_ about an imminent pole reversal, but about research that suggests the
average frequency of pole shifts has increased over time, and discussion of
the possible mechanisms for that, mentioning it in passing in one sentence
near the end of the article as something that some people _speculate_ based on
the recent weakening of the magnetic field.

[0] [http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141110-earths-magnetic-
fiel...](http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141110-earths-magnetic-field-flips-
more?ocid=fbert)

