A study led by geologists led by Arnaud Chulliat of the Paris Institute of Physics of the Earth showed that the speed of movement of the north magnetic pole of our planet has reached a record value for the entire time of observation.

The current rate of the pole shift is an impressive 64 kilometers per year. Now the north magnetic pole - the place where the arrows of all the world's compasses point - is located in Canada near Ellesmere Island.

Recall that scientists first determined the "point" of the north magnetic pole in 1831. In 1904, it was first recorded that it began to move in a northwesterly direction by about 15 kilometers per year. In 1989, the speed increased, and in 2007, geologists reported that the north magnetic pole was already rushing towards Siberia at a speed of 55-60 kilometers per year.

According to geologists, the iron core of the Earth is responsible for all processes, with a solid core and an outer liquid layer. Together, these parts make up a kind of "dynamo". Changes in the rotation of the molten component, most likely, determine the change in the Earth's magnetic field.

However, the core is not accessible to direct observations, it can only be seen indirectly, and, accordingly, its magnetic field cannot be directly mapped. For this reason, scientists rely on changes taking place on the surface of the planet, as well as in space around it.

The change in the lines of the Earth's magnetic field will undoubtedly affect the biosphere of the planet. It is known, for example, that birds see a magnetic field, and cows even align their bodies along it.

New data collected by French geologists have shown that a region with a rapidly changing magnetic field has recently appeared near the surface of the core, probably formed by an anomalously moving flow of the liquid component of the core. It is this region that is dragging the north magnetic pole away from Canada.

True, Arno cannot say with certainty that the north magnetic pole will ever cross the border of our country. No one can. "It's very difficult to make any predictions," Shullia says. After all, no one is able to predict the behavior of the nucleus. Perhaps, a little later, an unusual swirl of the liquid interior of the planet will occur in another place, dragging the magnetic poles along with it.

By the way, scientists have long been saying that the magnetic poles can even change places, as it happened more than once in the history of the planet. This change can lead to serious consequences, for example, affect the appearance of holes in the protective shell of the Earth.

Earth's magnetic field may be in for catastrophic changes

For some time now, scientists have noticed that the Earth's magnetic field is weakening, leaving some parts of our planet especially vulnerable to radiation from space. This effect has already been felt by some satellites. But so far it remains unclear whether the weakened field will come to a complete collapse and change of poles (when the north pole becomes south)?
The question is not whether it will happen at all, but when it will happen, say scientists who recently met at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. They don't know the answer to the last question yet. The reversal of the magnetic field is too chaotic.

Over the past century and a half (since the beginning of regular observations), scientists have registered a 10% weakening of the field. If the current rate of change is maintained, it may disappear in one and a half to two thousand years. A particular weakness of the field was registered off the coast of Brazil in the so-called South Atlantic anomaly. Here, structural features of the earth's core create a "dip" in the magnetic field, making it 30% weaker than in other places. An additional dose of radiation creates malfunctions for satellites and spacecraft flying over this place. Even the Hubble Space Telescope was damaged.
A change in the lines of the magnetic field always precedes its weakening, but not always the weakening of the field leads to its reversal. The invisible shield can build up its strength back - and then the field change will not occur, but it may happen later.
By studying marine sediments and lava flows, scientists can reconstruct patterns of how the magnetic field has changed in the past. The iron contained in lava, for example, shows the direction of the then existing magnetic field, and its orientation does not change after the lava solidifies. The oldest known field change has been studied in this way from lava flows found in Greenland, estimated to be 16 million years old. The time intervals between field changes can be different - from a thousand years to several million.
So will the magnetic field reversal happen this time? Probably not, scientists say. Such events are quite rare. But even if this happens, nothing will threaten life on Earth. Only satellites and some aircraft will undergo additional contact with radiation - the residual field will be enough to provide protection to people, because there will be no more radiation than at the magnetic poles of the planet, where the field lines go into the ground.
But there will be an interesting reconfiguration. Before the fields stabilize again, our planet will have many magnetic poles, making it extremely difficult to use magnetic compasses. The collapse of the magnetic field will significantly increase the number of northern (and southern) lights. And you will have a lot of time to capture them on camera, because the field flip will be very slow.

No one knows what awaits us in the near future, even the academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences make only guesses and assumptions ... Probably because they know only about 4% of the matter of the Universe.
Recently there have been various rumors that we are threatened by the reversal of the poles and the zeroing of the planet's magnetic field. Despite the fact that scientists know little about the nature of the origin of the planet's magnetic shield, they confidently declare that this does not threaten us in the near future and tell us why.
Very often, illiterate people confuse the geographic poles of the planet with the magnetic poles. While the geographic poles are imaginary points marking the Earth's axis of rotation, the magnetic poles cover a wider area, forming the Arctic Circle, within which the atmosphere is bombarded by hard cosmic rays. The process of collision in the upper atmosphere causes auroras and the glow of ionized atmospheric gas.
Since the atmosphere is thinner and denser in the zone of the polar regions, the auroras can be admired from the ground. This phenomenon is beautiful, but very unfavorable for human health. And the reasons for this are not so much in magnetic storms, but in the penetration of hard radiation into the territory of the Arctic Circle, which affects power lines, airplanes, trains, railway lines, mobile and radio communications ... and, of course, the human body - its psyche and the immune system.

These holes are located over the South Atlantic and the Arctic. They became known after analyzing data received from the Danish Orsted satellite and comparing them with earlier readings from other orbiters. It is believed that the "culprits" of the formation of the Earth's magnetic field are the colossal flows of molten iron, which surround the earth's core. From time to time, giant whirlpools form in them, capable of forcing the streams of molten iron to change the direction of their movement. According to the staff of the Danish Center for Planetary Science (Center for Planetary Science), in the region of the North Pole and the South Atlantic formed such eddies. In turn, the staff of the University of Leeds (Leeds University), said that usually the change of poles occurs once every half a million years.
However, 750 thousand years have passed since the last change, so the change of magnetic poles may occur in the very near future. This can cause significant changes in the lives of both people and animals. First, at the time of the reversal of the poles, the level of solar radiation can increase significantly, since the magnetic field will temporarily weaken. Secondly, changing the direction of the magnetic field can disorient migratory birds and animals. And thirdly, scientists expect serious problems in the technological field, since, again, a change in the direction of the magnetic field will affect the operation of all devices connected in one way or another with it.
Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, professor, as well as the dean of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University and the head of the Department of Physics of the Earth Vladimir Trukhin, says: "The Earth has its own magnetic field. It is small in intensity, but, nevertheless, plays a huge role in the life of the Earth. You can immediately to say that life as it is, could not exist on Earth if there were no magnetic field. We have small protections from space - such as, for example, the ozone layer, which protects against ultraviolet radiation. The lines of force of the Earth's magnetic field protect us from powerful cosmic radioactive radiation... There are cosmic particles of very high energies, and if they reached the Earth's surface, they would act like any strong radioactivity, and what would happen on Earth is unknown. Yevgeny Shalamberidze believes that a similar shift of the magnetic poles occurred on other planets of the solar system. Scientists believe that the most likely reason for this is the fact that the solar system passes through a certain zone of galactic space and experiences geomagnetic influence from other space systems nearby. Deputy Director of the St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Oleg Raspopov believes that a constant geomagnetic field is actually not so constant. And it changes all the time. 2,500 years ago, the magnetic field was one and a half times greater than it is now, and then (over 200 years) it decreased to the value we have now. In the history of the geomagnetic field, so-called inversions constantly occurred, when the geomagnetic poles reversed.
The geomagnetic north pole began to move and slowly moved into the southern hemisphere. At the same time, the value of the geomagnetic field decreased, but not to zero, but to about 20-25 percent of the current value. But along with this, there are so-called "excursions" in the geomagnetic field (this is - in Russian terminology, and in foreign - "excursions" of the geomagnetic field). When the magnetic pole begins to move, the process of inversion begins, as it were, but it does not end. The north geomagnetic pole can reach the equator, cross the equator, and then, instead of completely reversing the polarity, it returns to its previous position. The last "excursion" of the geomagnetic field was 2,800 years ago. A manifestation of such an "excursion" can be the observation of auroras in southern latitudes. And it seems that, indeed, such auroras were observed approximately 2,600 - 2,800 years ago. The very process of "excursion" or "inversion" is not a matter of days or weeks, at best it is hundreds of years, maybe even thousands of years. It won't happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
The shift of the magnetic poles has been recorded since 1885. Over the past 100 years, the magnetic pole in the southern hemisphere has moved almost 900 km and entered the Indian Ocean. The latest data on the state of the Arctic magnetic pole (moving towards the East Siberian world magnetic anomaly through the Arctic Ocean) showed that from 1973 to 1984 its range was 120 km, from 1984 to 1994 - more than 150 km. Characteristically, these data are calculated, but they were confirmed by specific measurements of the north magnetic pole. As of the beginning of 2002, the drift velocity of the north magnetic pole increased from 10 km/year in the 1970s to 40 km/year in 2001. In addition, the strength of the earth's magnetic field is decreasing, and very unevenly. Thus, over the past 22 years, it has decreased by an average of 1.7 percent, and in some regions - for example, in the South Atlantic Ocean - by 10 percent. However, in some places on our planet, the magnetic field strength, contrary to the general trend, even slightly increased. We emphasize that the acceleration of the movement of the poles (by an average of 3 km/year) and their movement along the corridors of magnetic pole reversal (more than 400 paleoinversions made it possible to identify these corridors) makes us suspect that this movement of the poles should be seen not as an excursion, but as a polarity reversal. the earth's magnetic field. The geomagnetic pole of the Earth has shifted by 200 km.
This was recorded by the instruments of the Central Military Technical Institute. According to Yevgeny Shalamberidze, a leading researcher of the institute, a similar shift of the magnetic poles occurred on other planets of the solar system. The most likely reason for this, according to the scientist, is that the solar system passes through "a certain zone of galactic space and experiences geomagnetic influence from other space systems nearby." Otherwise, according to Shalamberidze, "it is difficult to explain this phenomenon." "Pole reversal" influenced a number of processes occurring on Earth. Thus, "the Earth, through its faults and the so-called geomagnetic points, dumps an excess of its energy into space, which cannot but affect both the weather phenomena and the well-being of people," Shalamberidze emphasized.
Our planet has already changed poles .. proof of this is the disappearance of certain civilizations without a trace. If the earth for some reason turns over 180 degrees, then from such a sharp turn all the water will pour onto land and flood the whole world.

In addition, the scientist said, "excessive wave processes that occur when the Earth's energy is released affect the speed of rotation of our planet." According to the Central Military Technical Institute, "approximately every two weeks this speed slows down somewhat, and in the next two weeks there is a certain acceleration of its rotation, leveling the average daily time of the Earth." The ongoing changes require reflection to be taken into account in practical activities. In particular, according to Yevgeny Shalamberidze, the increase in the number of air crashes around the world may be associated with this phenomenon, RIA Novosti reports. The scientist also noted that the displacement of the geomagnetic pole of the Earth does not affect the geographic poles of the planet, that is, the points of the North and South poles remained in place.

It would seem that a strange hobby is to travel to the poles of our planet. However, for the Swedish entrepreneur Frederik Paulsen, this has become a real passion. He spent thirteen years to visit all eight poles of the Earth, becoming the first and so far the only person to do so.
Achieving each of them is a real adventure!

1. The North Magnetic Pole is a point on the earth's surface to which magnetic compasses are directed.

June 1903. Roald Amundsen (left, wearing a hat) makes an expedition on a small sailboat
Gyoa to find the Northwest Passage and pinpoint the exact location of the north magnetic pole along the way.
It was first opened in 1831. In 1904, when scientists took measurements a second time, it was found that the pole had moved 31 miles. The compass needle points to the magnetic pole, not the geographic one. The study showed that over the past thousand years, the magnetic pole has moved over considerable distances in the direction from Canada to Siberia, but sometimes in other directions.

2. North geographic pole - located directly above the geographic axis of the Earth.

The geographic coordinates of the North Pole are 90°00′00″ north latitude. The pole has no longitude, since it is the point of intersection of all meridians. The North Pole also does not belong to any time zone. The polar day, like the polar night, here lasts for about half a year. The depth of the ocean at the North Pole is 4,261 meters (according to measurements by the Mir deep-sea submersible in 2007). The average temperature at the North Pole in winter is about −40 °C, in summer it is mostly around 0 °C.

3. North geomagnetic pole - connected with the Earth's magnetic axis.

This is the north pole of the dipole moment of the Earth's geomagnetic field. It is now at 78° 30" N, 69° W, near Thule (Greenland). The earth is a giant magnet, like a bar magnet. The geomagnetic North and South Poles are the ends of this magnet. The geomagnetic north pole is located in the Canadian Arctic and continues move in a northwesterly direction.

4. The North Pole of Inaccessibility is the northernmost point in the Arctic Ocean and the farthest from the earth on all sides
The North Pole of Inaccessibility is located in the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean at the greatest distance from any land. The distance to the North Geographic Pole is 661 km, to Cape Barrow in Alaska - 1453 km and at an equal distance of 1094 km from the nearest islands - Ellesmere and Franz Josef Land. The first attempt to reach the point was made by Sir Hubert Wilkins by plane in 1927. In 1941, the first expedition to the Pole of Inaccessibility was carried out by plane under the leadership of Ivan Ivanovich Cherevichny. The Soviet expedition landed 350 km north of Wilkins, thereby being the first to directly visit the north pole of inaccessibility.

5. South magnetic pole - a point on the earth's surface at which the earth's magnetic field is directed upwards.

People first visited the South Magnetic Pole on January 16, 1909 (British Antarctic Expedition, Douglas Mawson located the pole).
At the magnetic pole itself, the inclination of the magnetic needle, that is, the angle between the freely rotating needle and the earth's surface, is 90º. From a physical point of view, the South magnetic pole of the Earth is actually the north pole of the magnet, which is our planet. The north pole of a magnet is the pole from which the magnetic field lines emerge. But to avoid confusion, this pole is called the south pole, since it is close to the South Pole of the Earth. The magnetic pole is moving several kilometers a year.

6. Geographic South Pole - a point located above the geographic axis of rotation of the Earth

The geographic South Pole is marked by a small sign on a pole driven into the ice, which is moved annually to compensate for the movement of the ice sheet. During the solemn event, which takes place on January 1, a new sign of the South Pole, made by polar explorers last year, is installed, and the old one is placed at the station. The sign contains the inscription "Geographic south pole", NSF, date and latitude of installation. The sign, erected in 2006, was engraved with the date when Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott reached the Pole, and small quotes from these polar explorers. The flag of the United States is placed next to it.
Close to the geographic South Pole is the so-called ceremonial South Pole - a special area set aside for photography by the Amundsen-Scott station. It is a mirrored metal sphere, standing on a stand, surrounded on all sides by the flags of the countries of the Antarctic Treaty.

7. South geomagnetic pole - associated with the Earth's magnetic axis in the southern hemisphere.

At the South geomagnetic pole, which was first reached by the sledge-tractor train of the Second Soviet Antarctic Expedition led by A.F. Treshnikov on December 16, 1957, the Vostok research station was established. The South geomagnetic pole turned out to be at an altitude of 3500 m above sea level, at a point 1410 km away from the Mirny station located on the coast. This is one of the harshest places on earth. Here, the air temperature for more than six months a year stays below -60 ° C. In August 1960, an air temperature of - 88.3 ° C was recorded at the South Geomagnetic Pole, and in July 1984 a new record low temperature was 89.2 ° C.

8. The South Pole of Inaccessibility - the point in Antarctica, the most distant from the coast of the Southern Ocean.

This is the point in Antarctica, the most distant from the coast of the Southern Ocean. There is no general opinion about the specific coordinates of this place. The problem is how to understand the word "coast". Either draw a coastline along the border of land and water, or along the border of the ocean and ice shelves of Antarctica. Difficulties in determining the boundaries of the land, the movement of ice shelves, the constant flow of new data and possible topographical errors, all this makes it difficult to accurately determine the coordinates of the pole. The Pole of Inaccessibility is often associated with the Soviet Antarctic station of the same name, located at 82°06′ S. sh. 54°58′ E e. This point is located at a distance of 878 km from the south pole and 3718 m above sea level. Currently, the building is still located in this place, a statue of Lenin is installed on it, looking at Moscow. The place is protected as historical. Inside the building is a visitor's book, which can be signed by a person who has reached the station. By 2007, the station was covered with snow, and only the statue of Lenin on the roof of the building is still visible. You can see it for miles.

You can learn more about the poles of the Earth from the book

L. Tarasov

Fragment from the book: Tarasov L. V. Terrestrial magnetism. - Dolgoprudny: Publishing House "Intellect", 2012.

Science and life // Illustrations

The edge of the ice shelf now bearing the name of Ross.

The route of the Amundsen expedition 1903-1906.

Drift path of the South Magnetic Pole according to the results of expeditions of different years.

Daily path according to the results of the 1994 expedition, which passes the South Magnetic Pole on a quiet day (inner oval) and on a magnetically active day (outer oval). The midpoint is located in the western part of the island of Ellef-Ringnes and has the coordinates 78°18'N. sh. and 104°00’ W. e. It has shifted from the starting point of James Ross by almost 1000 km!

The drift path of the magnetic pole in Antarctica from 1841 to 2000. The positions of the North Magnetic Pole are shown, established during the expeditions in 1841 (James Ross), 1909, 1912, 1952, 2000. Black squares mark some fixed stations in Antarctica.

"Our universal mother Earth is a great magnet!" - said the English physicist and physician William Gilbert, who lived in the 16th century. More than four hundred years ago, he correctly concluded that the Earth is a spherical magnet and its magnetic poles are the points where the magnetic needle is oriented vertically. But Gilbert was mistaken in believing that the Earth's magnetic poles coincide with its geographic poles. They don't match. Moreover, if the positions of the geographic poles are constant, then the positions of the magnetic poles change over time.

1831: The first determination of the coordinates of the magnetic pole in the Northern Hemisphere

In the first half of the 19th century, the first searches for magnetic poles were undertaken on the basis of direct measurements of the magnetic inclination on the ground. (Magnetic inclination is the angle at which the compass needle deviates under the influence of the Earth's magnetic field in the vertical plane. - Ed.)

The English navigator John Ross (1777-1856) sailed in May 1829 on the small steamer Victoria from the coast of England, heading for the Arctic coast of Canada. Like many daredevils before him, Ross hoped to find a northwest sea route from Europe to East Asia. But in October 1830, the Victoria was frozen in ice near the eastern tip of the peninsula, which Ross named Boothia Land (after the expedition's sponsor, Felix Booth).

Sandwiched in the ice off the coast of Butia Land, the Victoria was forced to stay here for the winter. Captain's mate on this expedition was John Ross' young nephew James Clark Ross (1800-1862). At that time, it was already common to take with you on such trips all the necessary instruments for magnetic observations, and James took advantage of this. During the long winter months, he walked along the coast of Butia with a magnetometer and made magnetic observations.

He understood that the magnetic pole must be somewhere nearby - after all, the magnetic needle invariably showed very large inclinations. By plotting the measured values ​​on a map, James Clark Ross soon realized where to look for this unique point with a vertical magnetic field. In the spring of 1831, he, along with several members of the crew of the Victoria, walked 200 km towards the western coast of Boothia and on June 1, 1831, at Cape Adelaide at coordinates 70 ° 05 'N. sh. and 96°47’ W found that the magnetic inclination was 89°59'. So for the first time the coordinates of the magnetic pole in the Northern Hemisphere were determined - in other words, the coordinates of the South magnetic pole.

1841: The first determination of the coordinates of the magnetic pole in the Southern Hemisphere

In 1840, the matured James Clark Ross embarked on the ships Erebus and Terror on his famous journey to the magnetic pole in the Southern Hemisphere. On December 27, Ross's ships first encountered icebergs and on New Year's Eve 1841 crossed the Antarctic Circle. Very soon, the Erebus and the Terror found themselves in front of pack ice that stretched from edge to edge of the horizon. On January 5, Ross made the bold decision to go forward, straight onto the ice, and go as deep as he could. And after a few hours of such an assault, the ships unexpectedly entered a space freer from ice: the pack ice was replaced by separate ice floes scattered here and there.

On the morning of January 9, Ross unexpectedly discovered an ice-free sea ahead of him! This was his first discovery on this journey: he discovered the sea, which was later called by his own name - the Ross Sea. To the starboard of the course was mountainous, snow-covered land, which forced Ross's ships to sail south and which seemed to never end. Sailing along the coast, Ross, of course, did not miss the opportunity to open the southernmost lands for the glory of the British kingdom; This is how Queen Victoria Land was discovered. At the same time, he was worried that on the way to the magnetic pole, the coast could become an insurmountable obstacle.

Meanwhile, the behavior of the compass became more and more strange. Ross, who had rich experience in magnetometric measurements, understood that the magnetic pole was no more than 800 km away. No one had ever come so close to him before. It soon became clear that Ross's fear was not in vain: the magnetic pole was clearly somewhere to the right, and the coast stubbornly directed the ships further and further south.

As long as the path was open, Ross did not give up. It was important for him to collect at least as much magnetometric data as possible at different points along the coast of Victoria Land. On January 28, the expedition was in for the most amazing surprise of the entire journey: a huge awakened volcano rose on the horizon. Above it hung a dark cloud of smoke, tinged with fire, which burst from the vent in a column. Ross gave the name Erebus to this volcano, and the neighboring one, extinct and somewhat smaller, gave the name Terror.

Ross tried to go even further south, but very soon a completely unimaginable picture arose before his eyes: along the entire horizon, where the eye could see, a white stripe stretched, which, as it approached it, became higher and higher! As the ships approached closer, it became clear that in front of them on the right and on the left was a huge endless ice wall 50 meters high, completely flat on top, without any cracks on the side facing the sea. It was the edge of the ice shelf that now bears the name of Ross.

In mid-February 1841, after sailing 300 kilometers along the ice wall, Ross made the decision to stop further attempts to find a loophole. From that moment on, only the road home remained ahead.

Ross's expedition is by no means a failure. After all, he was able to measure the magnetic inclination at very many points around the coast of Victoria Land and thereby establish the position of the magnetic pole with high accuracy. Ross indicated the following coordinates of the magnetic pole: 75 ° 05 'S. latitude, 154°08’ E e. The minimum distance separating the ships of his expedition from this point was only 250 km. It is the Ross measurements that should be considered the first reliable determination of the coordinates of the magnetic pole in Antarctica (the North Magnetic Pole).

Magnetic Pole coordinates in the Northern Hemisphere in 1904

73 years have passed since James Ross determined the coordinates of the magnetic pole in the Northern Hemisphere, and now the famous Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) has undertaken the search for the magnetic pole in this hemisphere. However, the search for the magnetic pole was not the only goal of the Amundsen expedition. The main goal was to open the northwestern sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And he achieved this goal - in 1903-1906 he sailed from Oslo, past the coast of Greenland and Northern Canada to Alaska on a small fishing vessel "Joa".

Subsequently, Amundsen wrote: “I wanted my childhood dream of a northwestern sea route to be connected on this expedition with another, much more important scientific goal: finding the current location of the magnetic pole.”

He approached this scientific task with all seriousness and carefully prepared for its implementation: he studied the theory of geomagnetism with leading German experts; I bought magnetometers there. Practicing to work with them, Amundsen traveled all over Norway in the summer of 1902.

By the beginning of the first winter of his journey, in 1903, Amundsen reached King William Island, which was located very close to the magnetic pole. The magnetic inclination here was 89°24'.

Deciding to spend the winter on the island, Amundsen simultaneously created a real geomagnetic observatory here, which performed continuous observations for many months.

The spring of 1904 was devoted to observations "in the field" in order to determine the coordinates of the pole as accurately as possible. Amundsen was successful in discovering that the position of the magnetic pole had shifted markedly northward from the point at which it had been found by the James Ross expedition. It turned out that from 1831 to 1904 the magnetic pole moved 46 km to the north.

Looking ahead, we note that there is evidence that over this 73-year period, the magnetic pole did not just move north a little, but rather described a small loop. Somewhere around 1850, he first stopped his movement from the northwest to the southeast, and only then began a new journey to the north, which continues today.

Magnetic Pole Drift in the Northern Hemisphere from 1831 to 1994

The next time the location of the magnetic pole in the Northern Hemisphere was determined in 1948. A multi-month expedition to the Canadian fjords was not needed: after all, now the place could be reached in just a few hours - by air. This time the magnetic pole in the Northern Hemisphere was found on the shores of Lake Allen on Prince of Wales Island. The maximum inclination here was 89°56'. It turned out that since the time of Amundsen, that is, since 1904, the pole "left" to the north by as much as 400 km.

Since then, the exact location of the magnetic pole in the Northern Hemisphere (South Magnetic Pole) has been determined regularly by Canadian magnetologists with a frequency of about 10 years. Subsequent expeditions took place in 1962, 1973, 1984, 1994.

Not far from the location of the magnetic pole in 1962, on Cornwallis Island, in the town of Resolut Bay (74 ° 42 'N, 94 ° 54' W), a geomagnetic observatory was built. Nowadays, a trip to the South Magnetic Pole is just a fairly short helicopter ride from Resolute Bay. Not surprisingly, with the development of communications in the 20th century, this remote town in northern Canada has become increasingly visited by tourists.

Let's pay attention to the fact that, speaking about the Earth's magnetic poles, we are actually talking about some averaged points. Ever since the Amundsen expedition, it has become clear that even for one day the magnetic pole does not stand still, but makes small “walks” around a certain midpoint.

The reason for such movements, of course, is the Sun. Streams of charged particles from our luminary (solar wind) enter the Earth's magnetosphere and generate electric currents in the Earth's ionosphere. Those, in turn, generate secondary magnetic fields that perturb the geomagnetic field. As a result of these perturbations, the magnetic poles are forced to make their daily walks. Their amplitude and speed naturally depend on the strength of the perturbations.

The route of such walks is close to an ellipse, and the pole in the Northern Hemisphere makes a detour clockwise, and in the Southern Hemisphere - against. The latter, even on days of magnetic storms, moves away from the midpoint by no more than 30 km. The pole in the Northern Hemisphere on such days can move away from the midpoint by 60-70 km. On quiet days, the sizes of diurnal ellipses for both poles are significantly reduced.

Magnetic Pole Drift in the Southern Hemisphere from 1841 to 2000

It should be noted that historically, measuring the coordinates of the magnetic pole in the Southern Hemisphere (the North Magnetic Pole) has always been quite difficult. Its inaccessibility is largely to blame. If from Resolute Bay to the magnetic pole in the Northern Hemisphere can be reached by a small airplane or helicopter in a few hours, then from the southern tip of New Zealand to the coast of Antarctica one has to fly more than 2000 km over the ocean. And after that, it is necessary to conduct research in the difficult conditions of the ice continent. To properly appreciate the inaccessibility of the North Magnetic Pole, let's go back to the very beginning of the 20th century.

For a long time after James Ross, no one dared to go deep into Victoria Land in search of the North Magnetic Pole. The first to do this were members of the expedition of the English polar explorer Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922) during his journey in 1907-1909 on the old whaling ship Nimrod.

On January 16, 1908, the ship entered the Ross Sea. Too thick pack ice off the coast of Victoria Land for a long time did not make it possible to find an approach to the shore. Only on February 12, it was possible to transfer the necessary things and magnetometric equipment to the shore, after which the Nimrod headed back to New Zealand.

The polar explorers who remained on the coast took several weeks to build more or less acceptable dwellings. Fifteen daredevils learned to eat, sleep, communicate, work and generally live in incredibly difficult conditions. A long polar winter lay ahead. Throughout the winter (in the Southern Hemisphere it begins at the same time as our summer), the members of the expedition were engaged in scientific research: meteorology, geology, measuring atmospheric electricity, studying the sea through cracks in the ice and the ice itself. Of course, by the spring people were already quite exhausted, although the main goals of the expedition were still ahead.

On October 29, 1908, one group, led by Shackleton himself, set out on a planned expedition to the Geographic South Pole. True, the expedition was never able to reach it. On January 9, 1909, only 180 km from the South Geographic Pole, in order to save the hungry and exhausted people, Shackleton decides to leave the expedition flag here and turn the group back.

The second group of polar explorers, led by the Australian geologist Edgeworth David (1858-1934), independently of Shackleton's group, set out on a journey to the magnetic pole. There were three of them: David, Mawson and McKay. Unlike the first group, they had no experience in polar exploration. Having left on September 25, by the beginning of November they were already behind schedule and, due to food overruns, were forced to sit on strict rations. Antarctica taught them harsh lessons. Hungry and exhausted, they fell into almost every crevasse in the ice.

On December 11, Mawson nearly died. He fell into one of the countless clefts, and only a reliable rope saved the explorer's life. A few days later, a 300-kilogram sleigh fell into the crevasse, almost dragging three people exhausted from hunger. By December 24, the health of the polar explorers had seriously deteriorated, they suffered simultaneously from frostbite and sunburn; McKay also developed snow blindness.

But on January 15, 1909, they nevertheless achieved their goal. Mawson's compass showed a magnetic field deviation from the vertical of only 15 '. Leaving almost all the luggage in place, they reached the magnetic pole in one throw of 40 km. The magnetic pole in the southern hemisphere of the Earth (the North magnetic pole) has been conquered. Hoisting the British flag on the Pole and taking pictures, the travelers shouted “Hurrah!” three times. King Edward VII and declared this land the property of the British crown.

Now they had only one thing to do - stay alive. According to the calculations of the polar explorers, in order to be in time for the departure of the Nimrod on February 1, they had to cover 17 miles a day. But they were still four days late. Fortunately, "Nimrod" itself was delayed. So soon the three brave explorers were enjoying a hot dinner on board the ship.

So David, Mawson and McKay were the first people to set foot on the magnetic pole in the Southern Hemisphere, which happened to be at 72°25'S that day. sh., 155°16’ E (300 km from the point measured at the time by Ross).

It is clear that there was not even any talk of any serious measuring work here. The vertical inclination of the field was recorded only once, and this served as a signal not for further measurements, but only for a speedy return to the shore, where the warm cabins of the Nimrod awaited the expedition. Such work in determining the coordinates of the magnetic pole cannot even be compared closely with the work of geophysicists in Arctic Canada, for several days conducting magnetic surveys from several points surrounding the pole.

However, the last expedition (the expedition of 2000) was carried out at a fairly high level. Since the North Magnetic Pole had long since left the mainland and was in the ocean, this expedition was carried out on a specially equipped vessel.

Measurements showed that in December 2000 the North Magnetic Pole was opposite the coast of Adélie Land at 64°40'S. sh. and 138°07' E. d.

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A lot of anxiety among scientists is caused by the shift of the magnetic pole of our planet. The magnetic pole is moving from North America towards Siberia at such a speed that Alaska could lose the Northern Lights in the next 50 years. At the same time, it will be possible to see the Northern Lights in some areas and Europe.

The Earth's magnetic poles are part of its magnetic field, which is created by the planetary core, which is made of molten iron. Scientists have long known that these poles move and, in rare cases, change places. But the exact causes of the phenomenon are still a mystery.

The movement of the magnetic pole may be the result of a process of oscillation, and eventually the pole will move back towards Canada. This is one of the points of view. Previous studies have shown that over the past 150 years, the strength of the Earth's magnetic field has decreased by 10 percent. During this period, the north magnetic pole has moved 685 miles in the Arctic. Over the past century, the speed of movement of the magnetic poles has increased compared to the previous four centuries.

The north magnetic pole was first discovered in 1831. In 1904, when scientists took measurements a second time, it was found that the pole had moved 31 miles. The compass needle points to the magnetic pole, not the geographic one. The study showed that over the past thousand years, the magnetic pole has moved over considerable distances in the direction from Canada to Siberia, but sometimes in other directions.

The north magnetic pole of the Earth does not sit still. However, like the south. The northern one “wandered” across Arctic Canada for a long time, but since the 70s of the last century, its movement has acquired a clear direction. With a growing speed, now reaching 46 km per year, the pole rushed almost in a straight line into the Russian Arctic. According to the forecast of the Canadian Geomagnetic Service, by 2050 it will be in the area of ​​the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago.

Based on these data, the staff of the Institute of Geosphere Dynamics modeled the global restructuring and dynamics of the Earth's upper atmosphere. Physicists managed to establish a very important fact - the movement of the North magnetic pole affects the state of the Earth's atmosphere. Pole shift can cause serious consequences. This is confirmed by a comparison of the calculated data with observational data for the last 100 years.

Following the Earth's neutral atmosphere at an altitude of 100 to 1000 kilometers, the ionosphere filled with charged particles extends. Charged particles move horizontally across the entire sphere, penetrating it with currents. But the intensity of the currents is not the same. From the layers lying above the ionosphere - namely, from the plasmasphere and the magnetosphere - there is a constant precipitation (as physicists say) of charged particles. This happens unevenly, and in the area of ​​​​the upper boundary of the ionosphere, in shape resembling an oval. There are two of these ovals, they cover the North and South magnetic poles of the Earth. And it is here, where the concentration of charged particles is especially high, that the strongest currents in the ionosphere flow, measured in hundreds of kiloamperes.

Along with the movement of the magnetic pole, this oval also moves. Calculations by physicists have shown that with a shifted north magnetic pole, the most powerful currents will flow over Eastern Siberia. And during magnetic storms, they will shift to almost 40 degrees north latitude. In the evenings, the concentration of electrons over the south of Eastern Siberia will be an order of magnitude higher than the current one.

From the school physics course, we know that an electric current heats the conductor through which it flows. In this case, the movement of charges will heat the ionosphere. Particles will penetrate into the neutral atmosphere, this will affect the wind system at an altitude of 200-400 km, and hence the climate as a whole. The shift of the magnetic pole will also affect the operation of the equipment. For example, in the middle latitudes during the summer months it will not be possible to use shortwave radio communications. The work of satellite navigation systems will also be disrupted, since they use ionospheric models that will not be applicable in the new conditions. Geophysicists also warn that the approach of the north magnetic pole will increase the induced induced currents in Russian power lines and power grids.

However, all this may not happen. The north magnetic pole can change direction or stop at any moment, and this cannot be foreseen. And for the South Pole, there is no forecast for 2050 at all. Until 1986, he moved very cheerfully, but then his speed dropped.

Another threat looms over humanity - the change of the Earth's magnetic poles. Although the problem is not new, magnetic pole shifts have been recorded since 1885. The earth changes poles with a break of about a million years. Over 160 million years, the displacement occurred about 100 times. It is believed that the last such cataclysm occurred 780 thousand years ago.

The behavior of the Earth's magnetic field is explained by the flow of liquid metals - iron and nickel - at the boundary of the earth's core with the mantle. Although the exact reasons for the reversal of the magnetic poles still remain a mystery, geophysicists warn that this phenomenon can bring death to all life on our planet. If, as stated in some hypotheses, during the polarity reversal, the Earth's magnetosphere disappears for some time, a stream of cosmic rays will fall on the Earth, which can pose a real danger to the inhabitants of the planet. By the way, the Flood, the disappearance of Atlantis, the death of dinosaurs and mammoths are associated with the pole shift in the past.

The magnetic field plays a very important role in the life of the planet: on the one hand, it protects the planet from the flow of charged particles flying from the Sun and from the depths of space, and on the other hand, it serves as a kind of road sign for annually migrating living beings. The exact scenario of what will happen if this field disappears is not known. It can be assumed that the change of poles can result in accidents on high-voltage lines, failures in the operation of satellites, and problems for astronauts. The reversal of polarity will lead to a significant expansion of the ozone holes, and the northern lights will appear over the equator. In addition, the "natural compass" of migrating fish and animals can fail.

The research of scientists concerning the issue of magnetic inversions in the history of our planet is based on the study of grains of ferromagnetic materials that retain magnetization for millions of years, starting from the moment when the rock ceased to be fiery lava. After all, the magnetic field is the only field known in physics that has a memory: at the moment when the rock cooled below the Curie point - the temperature of gaining magnetic order, it became magnetized under the influence of the Earth's field and forever imprinted its configuration at that moment.

Scientists came to the conclusion that rocks are able to retain the memory of magnetic emanations (outflows) that accompany any event in the life of the planet. Such an essentially elementary approach makes it possible to draw a conclusion, very important for the earth's civilization, about the consequences of the expected reversal of the geomagnetic field. The studies of paleomagnetologists made it possible to trace the history of changes in the Earth's field over 3.5 billion years and build a kind of reversal calendar. It shows that they occur quite regularly, 3-8 times in a million years, but the last one happened on Earth already 780 thousand years ago, and such a deep delay with the next event is very alarming.

You probably think that this is just an unsubstantiated hypothesis? But how not to notice the fleeting reversal of the Earth's magnetic field? The subsolar side of the magnetosphere, which is restrained by the ropes of magnetic field lines frozen into the proton-electron near-Earth plasma, will lose its former elasticity, and a stream of deadly solar and galactic radiation will rush to the Earth. This is something that cannot be overlooked.

Let's turn to the facts.
And the facts show that throughout the history of the Earth, the geomagnetic field has repeatedly changed its polarity. There were periods when reversals occurred several times in a million years, and there were periods of long calm when the magnetic field retained its polarity for tens of millions of years. According to the results of research by scientists, the frequency of inversions in the Jurassic period and on average in the Cambrian was one inversion per 200-250 thousand years. However, the last inversion took place on the planet 780 thousand years ago. From this we can make a cautious conclusion that another inversion should occur in the near future. Several considerations lead to this conclusion. Paleomagnetism data indicate that the time during which the Earth's magnetic poles change places in the process of inversion is not very long. The lower estimate is one hundred years, the upper one is eight thousand years.

An obligatory sign of the beginning of an inversion is a decrease in the intensity of the geomagnetic field, which decreases tenfold compared to the norm. Moreover, its tension can drop to zero, and this state can last for quite a long time, decades, if not more. Another sign of inversion is a change in the configuration of the geomagnetic field, which becomes sharply different from the dipole one. Are there any of these signs now? It looks like yes. The behavior of the Earth's magnetic field in relatively recent times is helped by data from archeomagnetic studies. Their subject is the residual magnetization of shards of ancient ceramic vessels: magnetite particles in fired clay fix the magnetic field at the moment of ceramic cooling.

These data indicate that the intensity of the geomagnetic field has been decreasing for the last 2.5 thousand years. At the same time, observations of the geomagnetic field on the world network of observatories indicate an acceleration in the fall of its strength in recent decades.

Another interesting fact is the change in the speed of movement of the Earth's magnetic pole. Its movement reflects the processes in the outer core of the planet and in near-Earth outer space. However, if magnetic storms in the Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere cause only relatively small jumps in the position of the pole, then deep factors are responsible for its slow but constant displacement.

Since its discovery by D. Ross in 1931, the North Magnetic Pole has been moving northwestward at a rate of 10 km per year for half a century. However, in the 1980s, the displacement rate increased several times, reaching an absolute maximum of about 40 km/year by the beginning of the 21st century: by the middle of this century, it may leave Canada and end up off the coast of Siberia. A sharp increase in the speed of the magnetic pole movement reflects the restructuring of the system of current flows in the outer core, which, as is believed, create a geomagnetic field.

As you know, in order to prove a scientific position, thousands of facts are needed, and in order to refute, one is enough. The above arguments in favor of the inversion only suggested the possibility of the coming doomsday. The strongest indication that the inversion has already begun is the results of recent observations from the Oersted and Magsat satellites of the European Space Agency.

Their interpretation showed that the magnetic field lines on the outer core of the Earth in the South Atlantic region are located in the opposite direction to what should be in the normal state of the field. But the most interesting thing is that the field line anomalies are very similar to the data of computer simulations of the process of geomagnetic reversal, performed by California scientists Harry Glatzmyer and Paul Roberts, who created the most popular model of terrestrial magnetism today.

So, here are four facts that indicate an approaching or already begun reversal of the geomagnetic field:
1. Reduction over the past 2.5 thousand years of the intensity of the geomagnetic field;
2. Acceleration of the drop in field strength in recent decades;
3. Sharp acceleration of the displacement of the magnetic pole;
4. Features of the distribution of magnetic field lines, which becomes similar to the picture corresponding to the stage of preparation of the inversion.

There is an extensive discussion about the possible consequences of a reversal of the geomagnetic poles. There are various points of view - from quite optimistic to extremely disturbing. Optimists refer to the fact that hundreds of inversions have occurred in the geological history of the Earth, but it has not been possible to establish a connection between mass extinctions and natural disasters with these events. In addition, the biosphere has considerable adaptive capacity, and the inversion process can take quite a long time, so there is more than enough time to prepare for change.

The opposite point of view does not exclude the possibility that the inversion may occur during the lifetime of the next generations and turn out to be a catastrophe for human civilization. It must be said that this point of view is largely compromised by a large number of unscientific and simply anti-scientific statements. As an example, one can cite the opinion that during the inversion, human brains will experience a reboot, similar to what happens with computers, and the information contained in them will be completely erased. Despite such statements, the optimistic point of view is very superficial.

The modern world is far from what it was hundreds of thousands of years ago: man has created many problems that have made this world fragile, easily vulnerable and extremely unstable. There is reason to believe that the consequences of the inversion will indeed be truly catastrophic for world civilization. And the complete loss of the functionality of the World Wide Web due to the destruction of radio communication systems (and it will certainly come at the time of the loss of radiation belts) is just one example of a global catastrophe. In fact, with the coming reversal of the geomagnetic field, we must experience the transition to a new space.

An interesting aspect of the impact of geomagnetic inversion on our planet, associated with a change in the configuration of the magnetosphere, is considered in his recent works by Professor V.P. Shcherbakov from the Borok Geophysical Observatory. In the normal state, due to the fact that the axis of the geomagnetic dipole is oriented approximately along the axis of rotation of the Earth, the magnetosphere serves as an effective screen for high-energy fluxes of charged particles moving from the Sun.

In the case of inversion, a situation is quite probable when a funnel is formed in the frontal subsolar part of the magnetosphere in the region of low latitudes, through which the solar plasma can reach the Earth's surface. Due to the rotation of the Earth in each specific place of low and partly temperate latitudes, this situation will be repeated every day for several hours. That is, a significant part of the planet's surface every 24 hours will experience a strong radiation shock.

Thus, there are good enough reasons to pay close attention to the soon-to-be-expected (and already gaining momentum) inversion and what dangers it can bring to humanity and each of its individual representatives - and in the future to develop a protection system that reduces their negative consequences.

Ecology

The polar regions of the Earth are the most severe places on our planet.

For centuries, people have tried at the cost of life and health to get and explore the Arctic and the Arctic Circle.

So what have we learned about the two opposite poles of the Earth?

1. Where is the North and South Pole: 4 types of poles

In fact, there are 4 types of the North Pole in terms of science:

north magnetic pole point on the earth's surface to which magnetic compasses are directed

north geographic pole- located directly above the geographic axis of the Earth

North geomagnetic pole- linked to the earth's magnetic axis

North Pole of Inaccessibility- the northernmost point in the Arctic Ocean and the farthest from the earth on all sides

4 types of South Pole were also established:

south magnetic pole point on the earth's surface where the earth's magnetic field is directed upward

south geographic pole- a point located above the geographic axis of rotation of the Earth

South geomagnetic pole- linked to Earth's magnetic axis in the southern hemisphere

South Pole of Inaccessibility- a point in Antarctica, the most distant from the coast of the Southern Ocean.

In addition, there ceremonial south pole– area designated for photography at Amundsen-Scott station. It is located a few meters from the geographic south pole, but since the ice sheet is constantly moving, the mark shifts every year by 10 meters.

2. Geographic North and South Pole: ocean versus continent

The North Pole is essentially a frozen ocean surrounded by continents. In contrast, the South Pole is a continent surrounded by oceans.

In addition to the Arctic Ocean, the Arctic region (North Pole) includes part of Canada, Greenland, Russia, USA, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

The southernmost point of the earth - Antarctica is the fifth largest continent, with an area of ​​14 million square meters. km, 98 percent of which is covered by glaciers. It is surrounded by the South Pacific Ocean, the South Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

Geographic coordinates of the North Pole: 90 degrees north latitude.

Geographical coordinates of the South Pole: 90 degrees south latitude.

All lines of longitude converge at both poles.

3. The South Pole is colder than the North Pole

The South Pole is much colder than the North Pole. The temperature in Antarctica (South Pole) is so low that snow never melts in some parts of this continent.

The average annual temperature in this area is -58 degrees Celsius in winter, and the highest temperature was recorded here in 2011 and amounted to -12.3 degrees Celsius.

In contrast, the average annual temperature in the Arctic region (North Pole) is – 43 degrees Celsius in winter and about 0 degrees in summer.

There are several reasons why the South Pole is colder than the North. Since Antarctica is a huge land mass, it receives little heat from the ocean. In contrast, the ice in the Arctic region is relatively thin and there is an entire ocean underneath, which moderates the temperature. In addition, Antarctica is located on a hill at an altitude of 2.3 km and the air here is colder than in the Arctic Ocean, which is at sea level.

4. There is no time at the poles

Time is determined by longitude. So, for example, when the Sun is directly above us, local time shows noon. However, at the poles, all lines of longitude intersect, and the Sun rises and sets only once a year on the equinoxes.

For this reason, scientists and explorers at the poles use the time of any time zone which they like best. As a rule, they are guided by Greenwich Mean Time or the time zone of the country from which they arrived.

Scientists at Amundsen-Scott Station in Antarctica can do a quick run around the world by walking 24 time zones in a few minutes.

5. Animals of the North and South Pole

Many people have the misconception that polar bears and penguins are in the same habitat.

Actually, penguins live only in the southern hemisphere - in Antarctica where they have no natural enemies. If polar bears and penguins lived in the same area, polar bears wouldn't have to worry about their food source.

Among the marine animals of the South Pole are whales, porpoises and seals.

Polar bears, in turn, are the largest predators in the northern hemisphere.. They live in the northern part of the Arctic Ocean and feed on seals, walruses and sometimes even beached whales.

In addition, animals such as reindeer, lemmings, foxes, wolves, as well as marine animals such as beluga whales, killer whales, sea otters, seals, walruses and more than 400 known species of fish live at the North Pole.

6. No Man's Land

Despite the fact that many flags of different countries can be seen at the South Pole in Antarctica, this the only place on earth that doesn't belong to anyone, and where there is no indigenous population.

There is an agreement on Antarctica, according to which the territory and its resources must be used exclusively for peaceful and scientific purposes. Scientists, explorers, and geologists are the only people who set foot on Antarctica from time to time.

Against, More than 4 million people live in the Arctic Circle in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia and Russia.

7. Polar night and polar day

The Earth's poles are unique places where the longest day, which lasts 178 days, and the longest night, which lasts 187 days.

At the poles, there is only one sunrise and one sunset per year. At the North Pole, the Sun begins to rise in March on the vernal equinox and sets in September on the autumn equinox. At the South Pole, on the contrary, sunrise is during the autumn equinox, and sunset is on the day of the vernal equinox.

In summer, the Sun is always above the horizon here, and the South Pole receives sunlight around the clock. In winter, the Sun is below the horizon when there is 24-hour darkness.

8. Conquerors of the North and South Pole

Many travelers tried to get to the poles of the Earth, losing their lives on the way to these extreme points of our planet.

Who first reached the North Pole?

There have been several expeditions to the North Pole since the 18th century. There is controversy over who reached the North Pole first. In 1908, American traveler Frederick Cook became the first to claim to have reached the North Pole. But his compatriot Robert Peary refuted this statement, and on April 6, 1909, he officially began to be considered the first conqueror of the North Pole.

First flight over the North Pole: Norwegian traveler Roald Amundsen and Humberto Nobile on May 12, 1926 on the airship "Norway"

First submarine at the North Pole: nuclear submarine "Nautilus" 3 August 1956

First solo trip to the North Pole: Japanese Naomi Uemura, April 29, 1978, traveled 725 km on a dog sled in 57 days

First ski expedition: expedition of Dmitry Shparo, May 31, 1979. Participants walked 1,500 km in 77 days.

First to cross the North Pole: Lewis Gordon Pugh covered 1 km in -2 degrees Celsius water in July 2007.

Who first reached the South Pole?

The first conquerors of the South Pole were the Norwegian traveler Roald Amundsen and British explorer Robert Scott, after whom the first station at the South Pole, Amundsen-Scott Station, was named. Both teams went different ways and reached the South Pole with a difference of several weeks, the first was Amundsen on December 14, 1911, and then R. Scott on January 17, 1912.

First flight over the South Pole: American Richard Baird, in 1928

First to cross Antarctica without the use of animals and mechanical transport: Arvid Fuchs and Reinold Meissner, December 30, 1989

9. North and South Magnetic Pole of the Earth

The Earth's magnetic poles are related to the Earth's magnetic field. They are in the north and south, but do not coincide with geographic poles, as the magnetic field of our planet is changing. Unlike geographic, magnetic poles shift.

The north magnetic pole is not exactly in the arctic region, but moving east at a rate of 10-40 km per year, since the underground molten metals and charged particles from the Sun influence the magnetic field. The South Magnetic Pole is still in Antarctica, but it is also moving westward at a rate of 10-15 km per year.

Some scientists believe that one day a change in the magnetic poles can occur, and this can lead to the destruction of the Earth. However, the reversal of the magnetic poles has already occurred, hundreds of times over the past 3 billion years, and this did not lead to any dire consequences.

10. Melting ice at the poles

Ice in the Arctic at the North Pole tends to melt in the summer and refreeze in the winter. However, in recent years, the ice cap has been melting at a very rapid pace.

Many researchers believe that already by the end of the century, and maybe in a few decades, the Arctic zone will remain without ice.

On the other hand, the Antarctic region at the South Pole contains 90 percent of the world's ice. Ice thickness in Antarctica averages 2.1 km. If all the ice of Antarctica melted, sea ​​levels worldwide would rise by 61 meters.

Fortunately, this will not happen in the near future.

Some interesting facts about the North and South Pole:

1. There is an annual tradition at Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. After the last food plane leaves, explorers watch two horror movies: the film "The Thing" (about an alien creature that kills the inhabitants of a polar station in Antarctica) and the film "The Shining" (about a writer who is in an empty remote hotel in winter)

2. Arctic tern bird makes a record flight from the Arctic to Antarctica every year flying more than 70,000 km.

3. Kaffeklubben Island - a small island in the north of Greenland is considered a piece of land that is located closest to the North Pole 707 km from it.