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Annotated Bibliography

The Earth’s Magnetic Field, Will Humanity Have to Survive the Flip?

Max Haskins

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

March 16th, 2018

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Annotated Bibliography

LaFee, Scott. "Polar opposites - It's a case of when, not if, the compass will point south." San

Diego Union-Tribune, (CA), 27 Nov. 2008 NewsBank, Accessed 01 Mar 2018.

This source is from a popular newspaper from the San Diego metropolitan area. The

Author LaFee, Scott has been with the San Diego Union-Tribune since 1992 and has

mainly written articles that deal with science, having a wide variety of knowledge in the

STEM field. First, the author talks about science fiction movie, “The Core”, he uses

media to bridge the gap between people who are familiar with the movie to get his own

message across more easily. He is setting up a basic reference point to speak from to

connect to his audience. The general concept of the movie is that the earth’s magnetic

field disappeared, and scientists figured out that the molten outer core stopped flowing.

The solution to this problem was to detonate nuclear bombs near the molten outer core to

bring back the magnetic field. Next, the article uses this connection to go more in depth

about the earth’s magnetic field and that occasionally it does disappear. Explaining how

the field reverses polarity where the compass points South instead of pointing North,

paleomagnetic data suggests that this phenomenon occurs about every 500,000 years.

Strangely the last flip took place 780,000 years ago meaning that the earth is way over

due for a flip. Then finally, it discusses what scientist think will happen during this flip.

Scientists suggest that no evidence has been found to think that there have been any

serious problems in the past that has come with the flip. But that does not mean our lives

would stay the same either, it will pose a few technological problems. I think this will be

a good source to use because it gives an average person point of view on the situation and

relates it to their lives. I will be using this source in my paper.

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Naeye, Robert. "Field Flip Ahead?" Sky & Telescope, vol. 135, no. 3, Mar. 2018, pp. 16-21.

EBSCOhost, librarylink.uncc.edu/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=127708249&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 01 March

2018.

This source is from a peer-reviewed journal article, Sky & Telescope, written by Naeye,

Robert a former Editor in Chief of Sky & Telescope. The author Robert Naeye, has

worked with several different scientific magazine producers such as, Discover,

Astronomy, Mercury, and Nasa, Robert most certainly has a passion for space and reflects

that in his writing. First this article introduces the reader to a bland statement that the

Earth’s magnetic field is dynamic and ever-changing, letting the reader know that the

magnetic field is not certain. The magnetic field is never in one place. The poles are

constantly shifting as much as 40 kilometers per year, while the strength of the field

varies in different parts of the world. Over the past 175 years, the average strength of the

magnetic field has decreased about 9%. This has given way to the notation that our planet

is heading towards a flip that could damage our technology-dependent global economy.

Next the author focuses on how soon a flip could occur. In the last 10 or so million years,

a reversal has occurred about every 250,000 years, but are inherently unpredictable. This

would explain why Earth hasn’t had a reversal in the last 780,000 years. Scientists

generally agree that the strength of the magnetic field does not drop to zero, but instead

the field will most likely break down into small patches of magnetic field coverage

around the earth. Another theory is that the Earth is headed for a period of significantly
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reduced field intensity, this type of event has happened 41,000 years ago where the field

strength fluctuated by 10% many times. Then finally, it is discussed how the strength of

our magnetic field has played a role in the development of life on Earth. The magnetic

field extends far out into space providing a force field that shields the planet from the

ravages of the solar wind and cosmic radiation. The magnetic field has made it possible

for the planet to keep its liquid water that allowed us and many other life forms to evolve

on our planet for millions of years. Whereas Mars did not have a strong magnetic field, so

it lost all its atmosphere from the solar winds. It slowly tore apart the atmosphere by

taking the lighter atomic elements such as hydrogen. I will use this source because it talks

about the different possible outcome that could happen to the planet in the next few

centuries.

“NASA.” NASA, www.nasa.gov/. Accessed 04 Mar 2018.

This is a reliable website that I can use to gain information on my topic. This source is

ran by the national government and provides accurate information about studies and

experiments that are going on within NASA. In their website they mainly deal with

things beyond our planet astronomically and on the earth as a planet. This focus allows

the site to cover a wide variety of information from earth oceans, climate, lava, magnetic

field to the sun, planets and anything that is beyond our solar system. This website is

about space and what new discoveries are being made about new planets. First when

accessing the website, it brings you to the home screens that can lead you to certain

subjects. The other tabs lead you to more informational sites that provide a general

knowledge about NASA and what they have discovered. Furthermore, once you select the
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tab labeled earth it provides ways to narrow your research or your interest. You may

select to focus on things such as Air, Climate, Hazards, Oceans and ice, Land, and

hurricanes. Once someone has selected a tab, they can sift through different articles that

pertain to their topic and gain current knowledge. I believe that this will be a very useful

source that will allow me to gain more knowledge about my topic. It provides different

perspectives that can pertain to my topic such as the climate and how it affects the

magnetic field.

"Study Suggests Magnetic Flip-Flop on Uranus." Daily News of Los Angeles (CA), 27 June 1986,

Valley, News, p. 10. NewsBank,

infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/0EF50E8C6C2CB08C?

p=WORLDNEWS. Accessed 11 Mar. 2018.

This news article is about the reversal of the magnetic field on Uranus, this article came

from the Daily News of Los Angeles. First the article mentions the Voyager 2 spacecraft

that flew past Uranus back in 1986, the images and data that came from the fly-by helped

NASA understand the magnetic field of Uranus. From the images that were received from

Voyager 2 showed that the magnetic field of Uranus is in the process of flipping, or

another theory is that an Earth-sized object crashed into the planet and caused the

magnetic field to flip onto its side. Next the article precedes to talk about how learning

about Uranus’ magnetic field will help us further understand our own magnetic field. This

would have been extremely lucky for us to witness a magnetic field reversal since that

happen so quickly in the geological time scale. Therefore; because of how rare it is to

witness a reversal most scientists lean toward the collision theory. Uranus has also taught

us that all planets in our solar system have rotational pole that does not line up with the
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magnetic field. For instance, on Uranus the rotational poles of the planet are in line with

the sun, speaking in earth terms they are located on the equator, but the magnetic field

poles are tilted 60 degrees away from the rotational poles. The earth on the other hand

only has a difference in 11 degrees, this huge difference is what scientists are studying,

trying to figure out why this difference happens and why the rotational and magnetic field

poles line up. Then finally, the article wraps up by giving information on the Voyager 2

satellite, on that day, that probe was 1.79 billion miles away from Earth, traveling 3,828

mph toward Neptune. I will use this source, it can show that we use information and data

from other planets to help understand our own magnetic field on Earth.