Since water is diamagnetic and diamagnetic materials are?

Question

repelled by magnetic poles. Why is the ocean at the North Pole not show some effect.

Answer 1

Gravity overpowers any diamagnetic effect water may have.

Answer 2

Just a clarification, diamagnetic materials are repelled by the magnetic field itself, not specifically the poles of the magnetic field. The strength of the earth's magnetic field at about the equator is 0.3 gauss (0.00003 Tesla), and about 0.6 gauss (0.00006 Tesla) at the poles. So, there is a stronger field at the poles but like others have said, 0.6 gauss is very very weak and too little to discern any large scale effects.

I don't know what you mean by "all the definitions of diamagnetic are for naught". There's only one definition I know of, and just because you don't have a measurable effect with ocean waters at the poles doesn't mean the effect isn't significant in other physical situations, e.g., the growing of crystals in zero-g (see link; for comparison they used a magnetic field over 500,000 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field to achieve a measurable effect!)

Answer 3

I agree with Helmut, but I would also like to add that there is "some" effect. The earth is not a perfect sphere it is kind-of egged shaped in reality and thus I think that has more to do with the poles and what not a lot more than how earth was actually formed within space. So, since it is an egg like shape the water is effected by the pull and push and what not, but it's so very little that gravity plays a bigger role as do other factors. I don't think we currently understand the effect that the poles have on those seas near them since it is currently very hard to read/research such minute things with our current technology. Plus, there is a difference in our regular earth metal magnets and our magnetic poles ;-)

Answer 4

The Earth's magnetic field is small enough that any such effects would be masked by other conditions.

Answer 5

There are several reasons.  The Earth's magnetic field does not have the same properties as an iron magnet.  Also, gravity at the earth's surface is a much stronger force than it's magnetism so there isn't any noticeable effect.  It takes powerful magnets to show any real effect because water's diamagnetic properties are so weak.