Geological question. If there is a actual reversal of the magnetic poles?

Question

would that melt the glaciers both at north and south poles or one of the poles? Would Alaska be on the new equator? What land masses would be affected by floods and would the flooding also enter the great lakes and major rivers as well as increase the water levels of the oceans?

Answer 1

Well it depends on the effects it would have on the weather. All scientists can do is speculate since it hasn't happened b4. But there could definitely be a change in el nino and la nina which could cause drastic changes in temperature and weather world wide. If the ice caps did melt I would have to say that pretty much every coast line would be flooded to some extent. Some worse than others.. continents closer to the ice caps would get more devistating affects than those closer to the equator.  And if the earth itself actually reversed along with the magnetism of the poles.. we'd be doomed lol

Answer 2

NO.  None.

Answer 3

No. You would not even notice that it happened.

Answer 4

That seemjs to happen over long periods, and there is no evidence that it causes disasters. The poles stay frozen when it happens. This tale about poles shifting causing doomsday is absurd.

Answer 5

The reversal of the magnetic poles aren't actually turning the Earth around, it's movement under the crust. The convection currents cause plate tectonics, but that is a very slow process (millions of years). Right now, geographic North Pole is actually the South Pole of Earth if you picture it as a magnet. That is why the north end of compasses point north. The poles are always moving, but reversal happens every 10,000 or more years. Scientists can track the reversals in cooled lava flows because the atoms in them would be in line with the magnetic poles.  Pole reversal is caused by the same thing that moves continents, but pole reversal shouldn't cause dramatic climate change.

Answer 6

the MAGNETIC poles are invisible, remember?... they're not 'real'.. they're where the lines of force come together..... "Alaska on the equator"????... you're thinking the land mass is going to shift with it????... no way.... just the invisble stuff moves.....it's not possible for the land mass or the tilt of Earth to do all that moving around!!.... just the lines of force!!....

Answer 7

It happens every 10,000 to 100,000 years.  All that usually happens is that magentic compasses go haywire.  North goes to south and visa-versa.  The poles stay cold and the tropics stay hot.  Minerals magentize in opposite direction when they cool from a magma whcih allows geologists to track the changes in the magentic field and date things too.  The knowledge of magentic reversals helped geologists with proving that plate tectonics really exited some 50 to 60 years ago.