At what date is it predicted that the reversal of the Earth's magnetic field, which is taking place right now, will be complete?

Brainyblonde

Earth's magnetic field reverses every few thousand years at low latitudes and every 10,000 years at high latitudes, A major uncertainty, however, has remained regarding how long this process takes. Although this is usually the first question people ask about reversals, scientists have been forced to answer with only a vague 'a few thousand years.'" The reason for this uncertainty? Each published polarity transition reported a slightly different duration, from just under 1,000 years to 28,000 years. Clement examined the database of existing polarity transition records of the past four reversals. The overall average duration, he found, is 7,000 years. But the variation is not random, he said. Instead it alters with latitude. http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-magnetic-04a.html Sep 05 04, 9:31 AM

Legolaschic

I'm thinking complete reversal of polarity, which I've heard happens only every 250,000 years. Sep 05 04, 9:49 AM

Brainyblonde

It depends on who you ask. Some reversals occurred within a few 10,000 years of each other Alamos and there are other periods where no reversals occurred for tens of millions of years." http://www.psc.edu/science/Glatzmaier/glatzmaier.html After all, Earth's dipole reverses direction only on occasion, currently at a rate of a few times each million years. http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/hoffman.html Such reversals happen about once every million years. http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/news/2002/041802mag_flip.shtml Such a reversal of polarity seems to happen every 250,000 years on average. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/about.html No known pattern exists in the timing or duration of these events, making them impossible to predict. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000EFD4B-4593-1E83-85F7809EC588EEDF Sep 05 04, 10:32 AM

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What causes the Earth's magnetic field? Why is the divergence of the magnetic field equal to zero? Is the magnetic North Pole constantly changing, and where is it now? A permanent magnet has a magnetic field because of how the electrons are traveling, but how does a whole planet have a magnetic field? Do the electrons travel all the way to the atmosphere and come back?

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