Magnetic Pole Shift? - Satellites Showing Radiation Damage
Southern Africa is experiencing weird vibes, according to scientists studying one of the more profound upheavals awaiting planet Earth.
This forthcoming revolution is a reversal in the Earth's magnetic field, an event that occurs every 500 000 years or so.
Signs that the reversal is about to happen again are nowhere more apparent than over Southern Africa, according to Dr Pieter Kotze, head of the geomagnetism group at the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory in the southern Cape.
Satellites in low-Earth orbit over Southern Africa are already showing signs of radiation damage suffered as a result of the Earth's magnetic field weakening above our part of the planet. The field forms the magneto sphere, which, like the Earth's ozone layer, protects the planet from the sun's harmful radiation.
Other symptoms destined to become apparent in the years ahead include the aurora australis, or southern lights. Usually seen only over the South Pole, these will become visible closer to the equator as the Earth's magnetic field weakens and disappears. Eventually, on past form, the field will reappear but with magnetic north and south pole changing places, as they have done for billions of years.
According to an article in the New York Times this week, the change will be devastating for migratory animals such as loggerhead turtles, which use the Earth's magnetic field to migrate 8 000km around the Atlantic. Bees, swallows, cranes, salmon, homing pigeons, frogs and eagles may also lose their way between breeding and feeding grounds.
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