Monday, July 7, 2008

Impending Reversal of Magnetic Poles

This is very interesting. Soon, in the near future, the magnetic poles are due to switch. This happens fairly often in history, as scrientist have found by studying magnetic rock samples. Before the magnetic poles switch, the magnetic field weakens to about 10% of it's normal intensity. This causes more UV rays to reach the surface to the earth. This could effectively heat the earth even further. However, there is a balance to this. With the weakened magnetic field, the earth cannot trap as much heat, so the heat escapes the atosphere very quickly. This odd cycle of balances does have an affect on the earth, though. Since more rays are passing through the atmosphere and are leaving faster, the earth is heated up for a shorter period of time. This could lead to shorter, hotter summers. This can already be proven by the fact that many places in the U.S. have been hit by record june temperatures. Normally, due to the trapping of heat, the warmest part of the year is August, but due to the reversal of the magnetic poles, June, the month with the most sunlight, colud end up being the hottest month.

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