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It’s probably not a move many Canadians would make, but the magnetic north pole is ditching the North American country in favour of Russia.
And it’s moving in such a hurry, scientists from around the world have had to set up a new map of the world’s magnetic field a year ahead of schedule, so things like GPS and other navigation services will keep working properly.
This week saw the release of the updated World Magnetic Model, which wasn’t due to be done until next year. It was last refreshed in 2015, but the pole has been travelling at 55km/h in a straight line, baffling scientists.
“Since its first formal discovery in 1831, the north magnetic pole has traveled around 2250km,” the US National Centers for Environmental Information said in a statement.
“This wandering has been generally quite slow, allowing scientists to keep track of its position fairly easily. Since the turn of the century, this speed has increased.”
It’s now crossed the Prime Meridian – meaning compasses in London which previously pointed slightly west of true north now point slightly east.
The Earth’s magnetic field is produced by the churning of liquid metals inside the Earth. As things inside the Earth change, so do the poles.
“It didn’t move much between 1900 and 1980 but it’s really accelerated in the past 40 years,” British Geological Survey scientist Ciaran Beggan told Reuters earlier this year, when scientists realised they had a problem.
The new model was going to be done earlier this year, but was postponed when US President Donald Trump shut down the government.
It’s believed every few hundred thousand years, the poles completely reverse – it can happen as quickly as a single human lifetime – but it’s not clear what effect this would have on life such as birds, which rely on it for navigation.
The south magnetic pole has barely moved, deepening the mystery for scientists.
