Earth's magnetic field can change 10 times faster than previously
thought

Date:
July 6, 2020
Source:
University of Leeds
Summary:
A new study reveals that changes in the direction of the Earth's
magnetic field may take place 10 times faster than previously
thought.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study by the University of Leeds and University of California at
San Diego reveals that changes in the direction of the Earth's magnetic
field may take place 10 times faster than previously thought.


========================================================================== Their study gives new insight into the swirling flow of iron 2800
kilometres below the planet's surface and how it has influenced the
movement of the magnetic field during the past hundred thousand years.

Our magnetic field is generated and maintained by a convective flow of
molten metal that forms the Earth's outer core. Motion of the liquid
iron creates the electric currents that power the field, which not only
helps guide navigational systems but also helps shield us from harmful
extra terrestrial radiation and hold our atmosphere in place.

The magnetic field is constantly changing. Satellites now provide new
means to measure and track its current shifts but the field existed long
before the invention of human-made recording devices. To capture the
evolution of the field back through geological time scientists analyse
the magnetic fields recorded by sediments, lava flows and human-made
artefacts. Accurately tracking the signal from Earth's core field is
extremely challenging and so the rates of field change estimated by
these types of analysis are still debated.

Now, Dr Chris Davies, associate professor at Leeds and Professor Catherine Constable from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego,
in California have taken a different approach. They combined computer simulations of the field generation process with a recently published reconstruction of time variations in Earth's magnetic field spanning
the last 100,000 years Their study, published in Nature Communications,
shows that changes in the direction of Earth's magnetic field reached
rates that are up to 10 times larger than the fastest currently reported variations of up to one degree per year.



==========================================================================
They demonstrate that these rapid changes are associated with local
weakening of the magnetic field. This means these changes have generally occurred around times when the field has reversed polarity or during geomagnetic excursions when the dipole axis -- corresponding to field
lines that emerge from one magnetic pole and converge at the other --
moves far from the locations of the North and South geographic poles.

The clearest example of this in their study is a sharp change in the geomagnetic field direction of roughly 2.5 degrees per year 39,000
years ago.

This shift was associated with a locally weak field strength, in a
confined spatial region just off the west coast of Central America,
and followed the global Laschamp excursion -- a short reversal of the
Earth's magnetic field roughly 41,000 years ago.

Similar events are identified in computer simulations of the field which
can reveal many more details of their physical origin than the limited paleomagnetic reconstruction.

Their detailed analysis indicates that the fastest directional changes
are associated with movement of reversed flux patches across the surface
of the liquid core. These patches are more prevalent at lower latitudes, suggesting that future searches for rapid changes in direction should
focus on these areas.

Dr Davies, from the School of Earth and Environment, said: "We have very incomplete knowledge of our magnetic field prior to 400 years ago. Since
these rapid changes represent some of the more extreme behaviour of the
liquid core they could give important information about the behaviour
of Earth's deep interior." Professor Constable said: "Understanding
whether computer simulations of the magnetic field accurately reflect the physical behaviour of the geomagnetic field as inferred from geological
records can be very challenging.

"But in this case we have been able to show excellent agreement in both
the rates of change and general location of the most extreme events
across a range of computer simulations. Further study of the evolving
dynamics in these simulations offers a useful strategy for documenting
how such rapid changes occur and whether they are also found during
times of stable magnetic polarity like what we are experiencing today."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Leeds. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Christopher J. Davies, Catherine G. Constable. Rapid geomagnetic
changes
inferred from Earth observations and numerical simulations. Nature
Communications, 2020; 11 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16888-0 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200706094136.htm

--- up 23 weeks, 6 days, 2 hours, 39 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)