Hi Charles and all the TowerTalkians,
That's an excellent question. We have evidence of shifts... frozen so to
speak, in the rocks. I don't recall how long ago shifts have taken place
in the 4.5 billion years of the earth's geologic history. It certainly
hasn't happened to my knowledge anytime recently.
We do know that the earth is wobbling on it's axis the way a top does
as it
slows down. (Yes ! We are slowing down!) That motion is called precession
and a complete cycle takes about 22,000 years. That wobble is responsible
for major changes in our seasons and the earth's climate over that length
of time. Nothing that shows up in our day to day weather. Not even
the El
Nino phenomena. It is most evidenced by the multitude of Ice Ages we've
records of in the past... about every 11,000 years.. like clockwork.
Again... this is nothing that happens suddenly. It's an ongoing process...
as is the shifting of the earth's magnetic poles.
Naturally, as the earth precesses, stresses would be induced in the
earth's
core which would shift the magnetic poles. However a shift to completely
reverse the poles... which I believe may have happened, is not
something I
claim any understanding about.
As you can well imagine... a topic such as this is fascinating to me as a
retired science teacher and re-activating private pilot... as well as a
roof-TOWER owner with a small beam to aim. However... I hate to say
this... but this topic has got to tick the reflector's administrators off
for being generally outside the scope of this reflector... regardless of
how interesting it is to us personally.
I'm embarrassed to add that I have not dreamed up a good April Fools post
this year so this is about as bad as it gets... while there is nothing of
an April Fools nature to contribute. Please keep further postings on this
topic off the reflector as much as I dearly want to read them... and of
course you may post me privately.
Thanks Charles and all you Great TowerTalkians out there.
Roger, K2JAS
At 07:58 AM 4/1/98 -0500, you wrote:
>What happens when the earth's mag. poles shift!? K4VUD
>
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