Buzz
The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are visible in Nunavut, Canada. This location once marked the magnetic north pole in the 1930s, but the pole has since relocated to the Arctic Ocean and is advancing toward Russia. cfarish/Getty ImagesWhile Washington, D.C. remains politically stagnant, Earth's magnetic north pole is anything but. Recently, it has been moving at an extraordinary speed, prompting scientists to revise a crucial navigation system relied upon by both military operations and everyday smartphone users.
The geographic north pole is situated in the Arctic Ocean, where all longitudinal lines intersect and Earth's rotational axis meets its surface. However, a compass won't guide you there. Instead, compasses align with the magnetic north pole, an entirely separate point.
Earth is enveloped by a magnetic field with its own poles, one of which is the magnetic north pole. If you possess a dip compass — a versatile tool with a needle that moves both vertically and horizontally — you'll recognize this location when the needle points directly downward at a 90-degree angle.
The magnetic north pole, however, is not fixed. In 1831, it was located near the Boothia Peninsula in Canada's Nunavut Territory. Since then, it has shifted northward into the Arctic Ocean, steadily approaching Siberia. Last year, it crossed into the eastern hemisphere.
Before the mid-1990s, as reported by the journal Nature, the pole moved at approximately 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) per year. Now, it is moving at a rate of about 55 kilometers (34 miles) annually.
"Between 1900 and 1980, it barely moved, but over the last 40 years, it has significantly sped up," geophysicist Ciaran Beggan told Reuters on January 11. Scientists are uncertain about the exact cause of this acceleration, though it appears to be influenced by a jet of liquid iron, a material that affects magnetic fields, pushing it away from Canada.
The World Magnetic Model
Beggan is part of the British Geological Survey (BGS), collaborating with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop the World Magnetic Model (WMM). Earth's magnetic field is constantly evolving, and the WMM forecasts these changes in the short term.
The WMM serves as the "standard magnetic model for navigation" utilized by NATO, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.K. Ministry of Defense, and "smartphone platforms like Android and iOS," as stated on the BGS blog. Its precision is therefore critical.
Typically, the WMM undergoes updates every five years. However, after its last regular update in 2015, Earth introduced unexpected complications. A sudden "geomagnetic pulse" beneath South America in 2016 caught scientists off guard.
Routine accuracy checks revealed that the 2015 version of the WMM was no longer reliable. By March 2018, NOAA confirmed that the model "had lost accuracy in the Arctic region."
The next update was initially planned for 2020, but NOAA and the BGS expedited the process, releasing a revised version late last year. This update incorporates the 2016 geomagnetic event, potentially improving future predictions.
A 2016 study revealed that Earth's axis — including the geographic north pole — is shifting slightly eastward at a rate of 10 centimeters (4 inches) annually. The primary cause appears to be the shrinking polar ice sheets: as these massive glaciers melt, their mass is redistributed into the oceans, potentially destabilizing Earth's rotational axis.
