The Earth’s Magnetic North Pole is currently moving towards Russia in a way that British scientists have never seen before.
Scientists have been tracking the magnetic North Pole for centuries, telling British newspaper The Times that it had come close to the northern coast of Canada. In the 1990s, it drifted into the Atlantic before moving rapidly towards Siberia in Russia.
Compass needles in the Northern Hemisphere point to the Magnetic North Pole, although the exact location changes from time to time as the Earth’s magnetic poles also change. The Magnetic North Pole is sometimes confused with the geographic North Pole, but this point is located at the same point where all lines of longitude meet.
In the three hundred years between 1600 and 1900, scientists estimate that the magnetic North Pole moved about six miles a year. At the beginning of this century, it rose to about 34 miles a year, before decreasing in the last five years to about 22 miles a year.
Why does the movement of the North Pole matter?
The movements are tracked as the data allows the compasses in our phones and other navigation devices to move.
Scientists told The Times that these trends are monitored by the British Geological Survey and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Together, they create the World Magnetic Model, which predicts where the pole should be at any given time.
The model plays a role in the GPS system that we use every day.
“Airplanes, ships, submarines, you name it, it’s in it,” William Brown, an international geomagnetic field modeler at the British Geological Survey, said in an interview with The Times.
What causes movement?
The outer core of the earth is made up of molten metal, molten metal. Unpredictable changes in the direction of this current cause the magnetic field around the Earth to move, which in turn causes the magnetic core to move as well.
“It’s like a big cup of tea,” Brown told The Times. “It is hot water with the viscosity of water.”
Fernando Cervantes Jr. current reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him at X @fern_cerv_.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Earth’s magnetic North Pole moves. What does that mean?