Climate Change and Shifting Poles

[seahorse3]

Nova did a special on pole shifts and the magnetic field. The evidence seems fairly certain there is an ongoing pole shift. It made me wonder if there is any link between the poles shifting and changing climate/weather, like El Nino etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGKKzsRjJ_Y&feature=related

Thoughts?

[rockdoc123]

I think one of the problems in such a discussion is setting the time reference frame. Polar magnetic reversals are rapid in geologic time but in actual time measures we deal with on a day to day basis they are relatively slow, taking hundreds or thousands of years to complete. As well it is not expected that there would be a period where there is no magnetic shielding to the earth, rather the magnetic field would wax and wane just as it normally does.

That being said there was a period back in the late eighties where there was a bit of discussion among the plate tectonic community about possible correlations between magnetic reversals, climate and extinction events. As I remember the analysis led to a conclusion that there wasn't enough evidence to draw any conclusions one way or the other.

I haven't paid any attention to this of late but will see if I can find anymore recent discussion.

[seahorse3]

RD I was hoping you would respond. The Nova video is fairly long, about an hour, but I think you would find it interesting. It's not based on climate change at all, only detailing how our magnetic field is weakening and the pole shifting. The weakening field leads to increased radiation, admittedly making things hotter. So, wouldn't the weakening field accompanied by a change in our magnetic poles (some of the geologist in the film believe we could end up with 4 different poles for awhile). So my question is wouldn't a change in earth's temperature, shifting magnetism lead to change in weather patterns like El Nino etc? The video points out these are in fact slow changes but at some point appear to move fairly rapidly in geologic terms. The poles now moving about 60km a year or something like that. I guess I don't see how a reduced magnetic field that we are clearly experiencing now with accompanied shifting magnetic or dispersed poles wouldn't affect our weather, climate, and be an explanation for climate change we see now.

[seahorse3]

RD I hope you will watch the video as it is based on the findings of guys in your field (geology), so I think you would find it interesting.

[Don35]

Some of the Mayan 2012 doomsday folks believe a pole shift is what will happen Dec. 21, 2012. VM can explain more than I can, I sure!

[seahorse3]

This isn't a Mayan thread. The premise is simple. If geologist and people studying the earth's magnetic field all agree that the shield has been weakening since about the 80s, and if they all agree this leads to increased radiation aka warming, why isn't this a contributing factor to "climate change" aka global warming? Why isn't this discussed? Further, if the magnetic pole is shifting as they apparently all agree, wouldn't this explain shifting weather patterns and shifting ocean currents that effect our weather?

[rockdoc123]

RD I hope you will watch the video as it is based on the findings of guys in your field (geology), so I think you would find it interesting.

I will out of interests sake but the subject matter isn't anything new. In fact part of the evidence used for the arguments Tuzo Wilson made back in the seventies regarding plate tectonics was based on the paleomagnetic reversal information gained from the seafloor by people like Allan Cox who did a lot of the ground breaking research in the sixties. I have his book Plate Tectonics and Geomagnetic reversals (1973) sitting in my home library, a great read.

[rockdoc123]

Ok, I've been searching around a bit. Intuitively it made sense that someone somewhere would have looked at the possible link between magnetic pole shift and galactic cosmic rays. I did find one paper which addresses this:

Knudsen, M, and Riisager, P, 2009, Is there a link between Earth’s magnetic field and low-latitude precipitation? Geology, 37, 1, p 71-74
Abstract:

Some studies indicate that the solar modulation of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) particles has profound consequences for Earth's climate system. A corollary of the GCR-climate theory involves a link between Earth's magnetic field and climate, since the geomagnetic field also modulates the GCR flux reaching Earth's atmosphere. In this study, we explore this potential geomagnetic-climate link by comparing a new reconstruction of the Holocene geomagnetic dipole moment with high-resolution speleothem data from China and Oman. The speleothem δ18O data represent proxy records for past precipitation in low-latitude regions, which is a climate parameter that is likely to have been sensitive to variations in the GCR flux modulated by the dipole moment. Intriguingly, we observe a relatively good correlation between the high-resolution speleothem δ18O records and the dipole moment, suggesting that Earth's magnetic field to some degree influenced low-latitude precipitation in the past. In addition to supporting the notion that variations in the geomagnetic field may have influenced Earth's climate in the past, our study also provides some degree of support for the controversial link between GCR particles, cloud formation, and climate.

I have the paper now and will read through it in more detail. Of importance here is that GCR as a forcing to climate is still very controversial. There has been some experimental work that yielded promising results but the research is still in it's early days. If the GCR theory were to prove out then there could be a link to polar magnetic reversals due to the weakening field. Lots of maybes here though.

[seahorse3]

Thanks for the update. Only seems logical to me. Look forward to hearing more, though. I rarely like to rely on my logic.

[seahorse3]

As noted above, the earth's poles are in reversal as we speak. The speed of course is an issue, but also it means our magnetic sphere decreases, allowing in more radiation. This does affect the planet and to my lap opinion may affect "global warming." Here's is some more recent news of pole shifts which happened relatively quickly, one in about 400 yrs and one in less than 1k years.


http://news.yahoo.com/earths-magnetic-field-made-quick-flip-flop-141239721.html