The magnetic North Pole is moving.
Scientists have been forced to change GPS systems to help ships, planes and submarines navigate in the Arctic.
Compass needles point towards the north magnetic pole. However, over the years this has moved from the coast of northern Canada a century ago to the middle of the Arctic Ocean, moving towards Russia.
It has moved at about 50km a year. It didn’t move much between 1900 and 1980 but it’s really accelerated in the past 40 years.
A five-year update of the World Magnetic Model was due in 2020 but the US military requested an unprecedented early review.
An update was released on 30 January.
The changing magnetic pole is because of unpredictable changes in liquid iron deep inside the Earth.
4 Responses
I didn’t know that?
creepy
scary
wow moving ice