General Music Chat

Earth’s magnetic pole shifts, screws up runway at Florida airport
By Liz Goodwin

An airport in Tampa, Florida, has had to temporarily close its runways to keep up with Earth's magnetic north pole, which is drifting toward Russia at a rate of 40 miles per year.

Its a commie plot!

Earth's magnetic field, which still flummoxes those who study it, "is thought to be generated deep inside the planet," LiveScience writer Jeanna Bryner explains. "An inner core of solid iron is surrounded by an outer core of molten iron. They rotate at different rates, and the interaction between the regions creates what scientists call a 'hydromagnetic dynamo.' It's something like an electric motor, and it generates a magnetic field akin to a giant bar magnet."

Sometimes, the poles completely flip -- and presumably when that happens, many bigger changes are afoot than modest tweaks to airport signs. The last time the planet experienced a polarity flip was 780,000 years ago.

Not True, In 1986 the magnetic stream in Japan fliped for a little over three days and everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road and singin' Only In America"

haha. that's hilarious.
I love how they say matter of factly, the last time this happened was 708,000 years ago, when in reality, everyone knows that's when Elvis first appeared and plugged in his amp to test out the new tubes

haha. that's hilarious.
I love how they say matter of factly, the last time this happened was 708,000 years ago, when in reality, everyone knows that's when Elvis first appeared and plugged in his amp to test out the new tubes