US: The geologists have come up with a new model of current representation of the entire globe’s magnetic field, updated in 2015, according to the report by Space.com
They decided to update it because of the excessive movement of the earth’s north magnetic pole from the Canadian Arctic and toward Siberia.
The updated model, called the World Magnetic Model, once made public, will be supposed to inform a wide array of navigation, including those directing airplanes and ships to people checking Google Maps on their smart devices.
The latest World Magnetic Model was designed to last until 2020, but magnetic north’s rapid and unexpected surge toward Siberia was so great, that researchers had to amend the model early, stated Arnaud Chulliat, a geomagnetist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Centers for Environmental Information.
The North Pole’s erratic movements are largely the result of Earth’s liquid-iron outer core, known as the core field. Other factors play a role, too, including magnetic minerals in the crust and upper mantle, as well as electric currents created by the flow of seawater, but these influences are small compared to those from the core field, according to the 2015 report on the World Magnetic Model.
For now, scientists are trying to figure out exactly why magnetic north is shooting toward Siberia. One idea is that its rapid flight is connected to a high-speed jet of liquid iron under Canada, as the report said.
It appears that this jet is weakening the magnetic field beneath Canada by smearing it out, which means that Canada doesn’t stand a chance against Siberia, Phil Livermore, a geomagnetist at the University of Leeds said.
“The location of the north magnetic pole appears to be governed by two large-scale patches of magnetic field, one beneath Canada and one beneath Siberia,” stated Livermore.
