Earth's heart beats with a magnetic rhythm. (rhythm of strength of magnetic field)

From: Science News | Date: November 20, 1993| Author: | Copyright information

Despite what you might have learned in fifth grade, compass needles don't always point north. Every several hundred thousand years, the magnetic field emanating from inside the planet does an about-face, swapping North and South Poles for easons that geoscientists have yet to unravel.

Researchers have now discovered a clue to help explain this peculiar habit. A study of recent magnetic reversals suggests that the strength of the field follows a distinct rhythm, a phenomenon that scientists had not noticed before, report two geophysicists from the Institut de Physique du ...

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