Another doomsday scientifically proved wrong

Oct 6, 2008 08:15 GMT  ·  By

The fatidic date of December 21, 2012 was linked by many to the drastic decrease in strength of our planet's magnetic field and to the complete reversal of its poles. This would leave Earth undefended against solar radiation, as well as force our satellites down from their orbit, wrecking the GPS system, further causing social collapse. But don't worry, real science contradicts all that. Perhaps it will happen later in time, but not now.

Most obviously, people tend to manifest an attraction for numerical patterns in dates, in that they link them to possibilities of Armageddon-like events that mean the end of the world as we know it. This time, it's all about Earth's poles shifting while the magnetic field seriously decreases in intensity, wreaking havoc on the planet. This is the last in a series of anticipated catastrophes for 2012, which included the Planet X – or Nibiru – threat (a civilization that Mayan 6.000-year-old texts claim to have created us from apes in order to be their slaves is bound to return to Earth from their Nibiru planet), as well as a giant, killing solar flare.

As it so happened before, once again, science steps in to appease the flaming spirits. The Mayan records (which stress the 12.21.2012 date) are no excuse to place the event then, even if the scientists admitted that the magnetic field and pole-related events might take place sometime during the next thousand years. However, there's a huge difference between geomagnetic reversal and polar shift, since the second one refers to a thing that only happened a few times during the evolution of the whole solar system. Usually, it implies a colossal collision that causes planets like Venus (which rotates in the opposite direction as the rest of the planets) or Uranus (which spins on its side) act differently from all the rest.

The geomagnetic reversal is known to be linked to the planet's inner dynamics, but it's otherwise little comprehended. During Earth's spinning, its molten iron core flows freely, causing the free electrons to be caught in the same convective motion. The charged particles' movement creates a strong dipole (with 2 poles, one North and one South) magnetic field enveloping and protecting the planet from the solar wind emissions, creating auroras in the process. While a strong magnetic field can be stable for ages, sometimes (several times during the last few millions of years) its strength can falter and it can even reverse, but scientists still don't have enough data to be able to explain the phenomenon. The last time this happened was 780.000 years ago, as the ferromagnetic sedimentation indicates, while the longest stable period was of about 40 million years, during the Cretaceous period.

The doomsayers' linking the magnetic field's behavior to the recent faults in the solar activity and its cycle, in general, has no scientific grounds whatsoever, since no connection has ever been established between the two. Furthermore, there is no precise "clockwork regularity" of this event's happening, which, once again, stands against the idea of it taking place on the respective day. As to its strength, Earth's magnetic field is still considered to be "above average," compared to its behavior in the last million years.