Sound of Earth’s Flipping Magnetic Field Is an Unforgettable Horror

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Sound of Earth’s Flipping Magnetic Field Is an Unforgettable Horror

Earth’s magnetic field

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roughly 41,000 years ago. We can now experience this epic upheaval, thanks to a clever interpretation of information collected by the European Space Agency’s

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satellite mission.

Combining the satellite data with evidence of

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, geoscientists mapped the

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and represented it using natural noises like the creaking of wood and the crashing of colliding rocks.

The resulting compilation – unveiled in 2024 by the Technical University of Denmark and the ******* Research Center for Geosciences – is unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

Generated by the swirling liquid metals in our planet’s core,

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reaches

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of thousands of kilometers into space, protecting us all by deflecting atmosphere-stripping solar particles.

As the iron and nickel

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, so does Earth’s magnetic field, meaning the North (and South) Poles are also constantly on the move. Recently, the position of the magnetic North Pole was officially changed, as it continues its shift away from Canada and towards Siberia.

In its current orientation, the magnetic field lines form closed loops that are directed south to north above the planet’s surface, and then north to south deep within it.

Yet every so often the field randomly flips its polarity. Were this to happen again today, our north-pointing compasses would point to the South Pole.

Strength of the magnetic field at Earth’s surface. (

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)

The last such cataclysmic event occurred about 41,000 years ago, leaving a signature in the Laschamps lava flows in France. As the field weakened to only 5 percent of its current strength the reversal process allowed a surpluss of cosmic rays to pass into Earth’s atmosphere.

Ice and marine sediment preserve isotopic signatures of this higher-than-normal solar bombardment, with levels of beryllium-10 isotopes doubling during the Laschamps event, according to a study

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These altered atoms are formed when cosmic rays react with our atmosphere, ionizing the air and frying the

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layer. With global

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being a potential consequence, it’s speculated the extinction of Australia’s megafauna as well as changes in human cave use may have been

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.

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“Understanding these extreme events is important for their occurrence in the future, space climate predictions, and assessing the effects on the environment and on the Earth system,” ******* Research Center for Geosciences geophysics Sanja Panovska

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.

It took 250 years for the Laschamps reversal to take place and it stayed in the unusual orientation for about 440 years. At most, Earth’s magnetic field may have remained at 25 percent of its current strength as the north polarity drifted to the south.

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