Imagine what it would be like for the electric grid across the world to go out at once not
only that GPS satellites and wireless services all go down as well is this an attack from some
unknown entity no it's actually the Earth itself the magnetic field it generates to
protect the planet on all living things on it has flipped this isn't some doomsday science
fiction either the Earth's magnetic field is going to flip it's only a matter of when and
how we can be ready when it does [Music] thanks to the materials and processes that formed our
home planet it generates a powerful magnetic field around itself that protects the planet
from not only the sun's harmful radiation but also radiation that constantly bombards us we
can think of the earth like something of a giant bar magnet with magnetic field lines creating a
series of Loops that run through the center of our planet with a very important difference unlike the
magnetic poles of a bar magnet and the Earth's geographic North and South Pole which stay at
a fixed axis the axis of the Earth's magnetic poles processes around the regions close to the
geographic poles usually staying relatively close by recently however the magnetic poles have begun
to travel a bit more than scientists typically see the north magnetic pole has been on the move
and since the 1970s it has been moving anywhere from 14 and a half kilometers nine miles up to
nearly 60 kilometers 37 miles a year and and has traveled from northern Canada to over halfway to
Siberia many scientists see this as a Telltale sign that a magnetic reversal may be coming soon
the reversal of the Earth's magnetic field is not a strange anomaly it is the natural cycle for our
planet scientists have been able to discover when these events occurred in the past and
they seem to occur as frequently as every ten thousand years all the way to taking more than
50 million years in between reversals although new evidence could be changing how scientists
understand the flipping of the magnetic poles and the speed at which they occur
there is no definitive proof as to what causes the magnetic field of the earth to flip but a few
theories have been put forth to try to explain why this happens the most popular theory has to
do with the movement of the material deep inside the Earth's core causing the new magnetic field
to form by twisting and shearing the current field the core of the earth is composed of
liquid iron and many believe that the movement of these layers generates the magnetic field
stress and turbulent forces present in this region of the earth may cause these layers of
molten metal to alter their Direction altering the magnetic field they generate in tour and
while the exact reason for these magnetic events are up for debate their occurrence in the past is
not for many years scientists have thought that the last magnetic reversal happened around 780
000 years ago but a new discovery last year in New Zealand has challenged that belief this magnetic
reversal occurred around 41 or 42 000 years ago and remain ain't hidden for so long because it
was not a typical reversal and is referred to now as the last champ Excursion when the poles
shifted this time they only did so for less than a thousand years making it somewhat a temporary
reversal there was a lot of chaos and turmoil across the planet during this time the magnetic
reversal caused the magnetic field to get weaker which lessened the protection that it offers
the Earth from solar winds and Cosmic radiation over this event the magnetic field was weakened
to nearly a quarter of its strength today this period of time on Earth was played with massive
electrical storms Aurora's far outreaching their modern versions of radiation from the
cosmos pummeling the surface with harmful energies and while there is no direct evidence linking the
magnetic reversal to catastrophe for those living on the planet the timing of this lines up with a
few other important events this was at the time the Neanderthals went extinct after living on
the planets along with Homo sapiens for hundreds thousands of years fossil evidence also was found
throughout Australia of mass extinction event happening across the continent 42
000 years ago putting it in the same time frame as the magnetic reversal researchers are now looking
across the globe for additional evidence of what happened around this time and if the magnetic
reversal led to a massive change for Earth because of all the movement on Earth's magnetic poles over
the past few decades there are some scientists who believe that another major magnetic event
will be imminent it is normal for the magnetic poles to wander around a bit but their current
rate may be evidence that major shifts will be occurring in the very near future the strength
of the magnetic field is also currently weakening and while scientists point out that the magnetic
field of today is much stronger than it was in the past it is still a sign that it may be heading in
a dangerous Direction current scientific models put the weakening of the magnetic field around
10 percent in the past three decades while some some Studies have put that number as high as 20
percent a truly frightening amount of strength to lose in such a short time according to a study out
of the University of New South Wales found that the time leading up to a magnetic reversal as the
poles are migrating across the planet is the most dramatic part of the process with the greatest
loss in field strength if this trend continues what could that mean for our lives on Earth
as the magnetic field gets weaker a higher percentage of solar winds as well as cosmic
rays will penetrate into our atmosphere the higher levels of supercharged particles
bombarding the electric grid on the surface could cause quite a bit of disturbance and
bring down their operations at least for some time satellites out in orbit would also get
stuck by much more radiation causing much of the world's communication systems to shut down
not to mention the amount of harmful ultraviolet and other forms of radiation that are known to
damage human tissues and to cause various forms of cancer the amount of damage that will be done
and the danger we will be in depends entirely on how long it takes for the magnetic poles to
migrate before they fall into their new place and the field can stabilize and strengthen again but
this happened to humans before did they leave behind Clues to help explain how they made it
through this time not only did Neanderthals and many other species go extinct about 40
000 years ago some other notable archaeological fines have been found researchers have been able
to find an abundance of cave paintings that began to appear right around this time suggesting that
our ancestors may have sought shelter from harmful radiation in caves they have also
found evidence that red ocher a natural clay pigment was used to cover the skin as a form
of natural sunscreen regardless of how they survived they found a way and were able to
come out of the last jump Excursion and continue the growth of our species humans have been able
to survive countless natural disasters including a magnetic reversal according to the new research
so there is no doubt that this will not be the end of our species there may be some tumultuous
times following this event will the safest option be to follow what some scientists say
our ancestors did and Retreat to cave systems to protect ourselves from harmful radiation
coming through the weakest magnetic field will scientists be able to upgrade our infrastructure
and build protections for the systems that help our world run or will the damages not be so bad
and this event ends up being something we didn't need to worry about there is no telling when the
magnetic field will weaken enough to cause actual damage to us on the surface it could begin in a
year or it may take another thousand will we be ready thanks for watching what do you think will
happen when the magnetic poles flip let us know in the comments below see you next time on Mata