Polar Shift and Earthquakes Today
The increase in the number of strong earthquakes today may be related to the phenomenon of polar shift, and are both byproducts of Earth’s turbulent and boiling liquid Iron outer core, roiling around a solid Iron inner core as hot as the Sun and spinning faster than the rotation of the planet itself.
The Earth’s mantle and crust are floating on top of a stormy sea of electrically conducting molten Iron which produces the planet’s magnetic field by something called the Dynamo effect. The north magnetic pole was first located in 1831 and has been regularly tracked up until the most recent measurement taken some time ago in 2001. During that time the pole has moved an amazing 1,100 km. In fact, since 1970 the pole has been moving much faster, from 10 km to 40 km annually, an incredible four fold increase.
Map of magnetic polar shift since 1831, from the office of Geomagnetism of the Geological Survey of Canada.
Since the speed of its movement has sped-up by a factor of four during such a short time, it might be reasonable to wonder if its speed has continued to increase since 2001. Seemingly the incentive is there to check.
Polar shift is caused by substantial changes in movement of the molten Iron outer core.
Dr. Tony Phillips of Science News – NASA has stated the following details… About 400 polar shift reversals have occurred during the past 330 million years while the average interval between reversals during recent geological times has been about 200 thousand years. The Earth’s last field reversal occurred 780 thousand years ago and we are apparently way overdue.
Most evidence gathered from analyzing certain types of rock indicates that a polar shift reversal process may take 1,000 or up to 8,000 years to complete. However there have also been reports of the process completing itself much, much faster than that, the most famous account being from measurements taken of lava rock at Steens Mountain, Oregon which indicate that the magnetic field had been shifting up to 6 degrees per day during one particular polar shift nearly 16 million years ago.
The polar shift process itself is of concern not only for its effects on the earth such as volcanoes and earthquakes, but if the behavior is such that the field first reduces to zero before rebuilding itself, the Earth will be exposed without sufficient defense to solar radiation, which would be disastrous. In fact, the present day magnetic field is rapidly weakening according to some scientific experts. There are several theories about how a reversal would take place, some still maintain protection from the sun while others do not.
We know that the present magnetic polar shift is occurring rapidly, and we know that this is a result of a changing tumultuous outer core. We might conclude that this cause-and-effect might be contributing to other observed changes on the planet surface such as tectonic plate movement resulting in more earthquakes today. So far during 2010, we have observed a significant increase in earthquakes, particularly in the higher magnitude ranges. Everything we are seeing here lately regarding magnetic polar shift and earthquakes today may all be related and may be reflections of changes that are occurring deep beneath our feet.