5497294 © Indiansummer | Dreamstime.com
I have previously talked about Uranus’ weird tilt and magnetic sphere flips. Earth’s magnetic poles also flip, but much more slowly, about every 200,000 to 300,000 year. Think a quarter of a million years. Nothing to worry about.
Except last flip was 786,000 years ago; we are way overdue.
How would a flip impact us?
First, the field grows weaker right before the flip. Maybe to as little as 10% of normal. Since one of the things the magnetic sphere does is protect the living things on the planet’s surface from solar radiation, an increase of genetic mutation (cancer … especially skin cancer) would increase. Temperature might also rise on the surface, because, yeah, we need more of that.
Second, the magnetic poles wobble around for a while. Magnetic north moves miles in one direction or the other. Anything working on magnetic pole location, like satellites (which give us GPS), will have a rough time. As the wobbles occur all the time, programming has taken care of much of this issue already. Birds don’t seem to have an issue either.
Third, for humans, the flip doesn’t just “stick” the first time. It flips back and forth for a few decades (maybe centuries … the geological record isn’t really clear). That will be a problem. A lot of tech is magnetic base. Self-driving cars and planes are just some of the tech that will be impacted.
A magnetic flip may take down electrical grids. The article I read said “decades” but I think weeks. I consider this just another reason to go solar. Micro-management of some energy with solar houses will keep things humming even if larger grids go down. The combination of large grids and micro-grids gives flexibility for survival.
Bibliography
Dnews / Seeker. “What Happens When Earth’s Magnetic Poles Reverse?” Seeker. 2014 October 21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou1BiorYRNU (last viewed 4/1/2022)
Gohd, Chelsea. “The Earth’s Magnetic Poles Are Overdue for a Switch.” Futurism. 2018 January 29. https://futurism.com/earths-magnetic-poles-overdue-switch (last viewed 4/1/2022)