29 min
20 - Clues in Ancient Pottery Say the Magnetic Poles Aren’t About to Switch The Schist of It with Cate Larsen
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- Earth Sciences
The South Atlantic Anomaly is a huge weak spot in Earth's magnetic field and there's been plenty of speculation (and panic) about the possibility of a pole reversal, which some believe could spell disaster for humanity. Scientists already thought a magnetic doomsday wasn't all that likely, but now we have even more proof there's nothing to worry about thanks to a new model built with data from volcanics, sediments, and ancient clay pottery. This model gives us a look at the magnetic field over the past 9,000 years and sheds some light on what its future may hold. Spoiler alert: we're good.
Source Material:
Andreas Nilsson, Neil Suttie, Joseph S. Stoner, Raimund Muscheler. Recurrent ancient geomagnetic field anomalies shed light on future evolution of the South Atlantic Anomaly. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022; 119 (24)
Read it for yourself, it's free! https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2200749119
The South Atlantic Anomaly is a huge weak spot in Earth's magnetic field and there's been plenty of speculation (and panic) about the possibility of a pole reversal, which some believe could spell disaster for humanity. Scientists already thought a magnetic doomsday wasn't all that likely, but now we have even more proof there's nothing to worry about thanks to a new model built with data from volcanics, sediments, and ancient clay pottery. This model gives us a look at the magnetic field over the past 9,000 years and sheds some light on what its future may hold. Spoiler alert: we're good.
Source Material:
Andreas Nilsson, Neil Suttie, Joseph S. Stoner, Raimund Muscheler. Recurrent ancient geomagnetic field anomalies shed light on future evolution of the South Atlantic Anomaly. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022; 119 (24)
Read it for yourself, it's free! https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2200749119
29 min