Of The Earth Flip Flop!
- A Crazy Little Bird Told Me
- Jun 8, 2025
- 4 min read
I got a little bit curious about this whole magnetic field flip-flopping (not quite a scientific term but rather fitting still!) meaning the magnetic field reversal, or when the South Pole becomes the North Pole.
I know some people will start talking about conspiracy and all those fun 21st century notions, but I will trust in the scientific publications and facts, rather than the melodramatic interpretations, at least until proven otherwise!
What is the Earth magnetic field?
It is a type of shield that runs through the planet and “erupt” vertically to the surface to form the magnetic poles, before encompassing the globe. For more details about that you can refer to the following article: “Did you know that Earth has 7 poles”.
What is the purpose of the Earth magnetic field?
It prevents the erosion of our atmosphere by solar winds, radiations, cosmic rays etc. making sure the Earth doesn’t turn into a giant microwave cooking animals and plants alike.
Therefore, how essential is the magnetic field to us mere humans? Pretty freaking essential, really!
The problem we have though, is that such field is not a constant in life. It fluctuates in intensity and location. For example, the North Magnetic Pole is currently moving at a rate of 34 miles per year!
Now, here comes the fun part, the strength of the magnetic field wax and wane over time, and every now and then, the north and south poles flip. What was up is now down, at least magnetically speaking!
What are the consequences of this flip-flopping?
This is where controversy might erupt. The most dramatic posts indicate that such swapping would be the end of it all, the extinction of all life on Earth. But how accurate is that statement?
Well truth be told, the reversal of magnetic poles would have an impact on animals that use an internal compass, and therefore the magnetic field, to navigate, such as sea turtles.
What else would happen? Geologic and fossil records from previous reversals show nothing remarkable, such as doomsday events or major extinctions, with no major changes to the plant or animal kingdom, and deep ocean sediment samples indicating glacial activity was also stable during such period.
That being said, we might notice the changes, not so much because of the reversal itself, but rather as a consequence of the weakening of the magnetic field leading to it. The least powerful it is, the more exposed to cosmic rays and radiation our satellites are, potentially leading to malfunctions. This is already being witnessed in some part of the Earth where said field is lower, such as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA).
Now this doesn’t necessarily mean Armageddon people, but considering our complete dependence to technology nowadays (when was the last time you used a paper map?), I expect that any disturbance to said technology might be unsettling for many.
So, bottom line: the pole reversal is not the global extinction event that some would make it to be, however, the weakening of the magnetic field might have some impact while a total collapse would be terribly unfortunate for life on Earth (once again, picture a giant microwave!).
Do keep in mind that 1) not all magnetic field weakening lead to pole reversal and 2) a total collapse of said field has never happened (at least no proof has been found from what I’ve read!).
How often do those events take place?
The Earth magnetic poles have reversed 183 times in the last 83 million years, and much more before that it seems. While the frequency fluctuates, it appears the average is about 300,000 years, with the last event taking place 780,000 years ago.
When do we expect the next pole swapping?
While the Earth’s magnetic field has weakened about nine percent on a global average in the past 200 years, studies show the field is about as strong as it’s been in the past 100,000 years and is twice as intense as its million-year average. Conclusion? The next flip-flopping might happen tomorrow or in 200,000 years, nobody really knows (alright, alright, tomorrow is pretty unlikely, but you get my drift)!
When was pole reversal discovered?
Because an article is never complete without a little bit of history, that discovery is pretty recent, dating from the early 20th century, by the likes of Bernard Brunhes or Motonori Matu. As can be expected, there wasn’t a huge appetite for the topic at the time (that notion would have been pretty unbelievable at first!).
Food for thoughts:
one can wonder whether human activities might be a factor that speed the process up (weakening of the magnetic field and/or pole reversal);
at the rate we, human beings, are harvesting the Earth, destroying ecosystems, polluting the air, the land and the sea, the good news is that we will probably exterminate ourselves way before the next major change of magnetic field! Up to you to decide which hypothetical extinction scenario cheers you up the most!
My only remaining question, personally, is how much of this flip-flopping impacts Santa?
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