The Earth’s magnetic field is weakening ten times faster than expected

inhabitat.com

New satellite data from the European Space Agency has revealed some puzzling findings: the Earth’s magnetic field appears to be weakening much faster than previous research would suggest. These measurements show that on the whole, the planet’s geomagnetic field is weakening about ten times faster than expected, at a rate of about 5% every decade. However, it’s also important to note that in some regions it’s actually strengthened, particularly over Asia.

The data was collected by the ESA‘s three Swarm satellites, which track changes in the Earth’s magnetic field, making note of the strength, direction, and variations across the globe. Since their launch in 2013, they’ve measured magnetic signals from the Earth’s core, mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere, and magnetosphere – creating a much more detailed map than scientists have ever been able to create before.

The localized fluctuations in the magnetic field are easily explained; researchers believe that they’re due to the movement of liquid metal flowing within the planet’s core. What they aren’t yet able to explain is exactly why the field as a whole is becoming weaker, or what the effects of that change will be.

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Yellowstone Volcano: Supervolcano Eruption Would Last for ‘Many Months,’ Possible Even ‘Years’

Epoch Times

An eruption of the Yellowstone National Park supervolcano could last for over a year.

The park sits on top of the world’s largest active volcano, which erupted around 640,000 years ago and sent ash across most of North America.

The two other recorded eruptions are 1.3 million and 2.1 million years ago.

While discussing the effects of an eruption, supervolcano scientist Bob Smith told NBC that an eruption could last for a long time.

“These giant eruptions in Yellowstone – the supervolcano, if you wish — probably last many, many months, maybe even years,” Smith said.

The story also discussed news that is actually six months old–that Smith and other scientists discovered that the magma pool underneath the volcano is about 2.5 times larger than previously thought.

They found that the cavern stretches for more than 55 miles. ”We’ve been working there for a long time, and we’ve always thought it would be bigger… but this finding is astounding,” Smith, who is a professor at the University of Utah, told BBC at the time.

The team used a network of seismometers to map the gigantic chamber.

“We record earthquakes in and around Yellowstone, and we measure the seismic waves as they travel through the ground,” said Dr. Jamie Farrell, also of the University of Utah.

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There May Be An Ancient Earth Inside Earth, Say Harvard Scientists

Higher Perspective

A team of Harvard scientists believe the remnants of an ancient Earth, dating to the time another planet collided with ours to produce the moon, may still be lodged deep within the Earth’s mantle.

The team believes that a previously unexplained isotopic ratio from deep within the Earth might be a signal from material from before the Earth collided with another planet-sized body, which led to the creation of the Moon. This might be an echo of an ancient Earth that existed 4.5 billion years ago, prior to the proposed collision.

The current favored theory says that the Moon was formed 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth collided with a mass the size of Mars, dubbed “Theia.” This theory states that the heat generated by the collision would have melted the whole planet before some of the debris spun off to create the Moon.

But now, the team at Harvard, led by Associate Professor Sujoy Mukhopadhyay, believe that they’ve found evidence to support that only part of the Earth melted, and that an ancient part still exists within the Earth’s mantle.

According to Professor Mukhopadhyay: “The energy released by the impact between the Earth and Theia would have been huge, certainly enough to melt the whole planet. But we believe that the impact energy was not evenly distributed throughout the ancient Earth. This means that a major part of the impacted hemisphere would probably have been completely vaporized, but the opposite hemisphere would have been partly shielded, and would not have undergone complete melting.”

The team analyzed the ratios of noble gas isotopes from deep within the Earth’s mantle and compared the results to isotope ratios closer to the surface. They found that 3He to 22Ne ratio from the shallow mantle is significantly higher than the equivalent ratio deep within the mantle.

Professor Mukhopadhyay remarked: “This implies that the last giant impact did not completely mix the mantle and there was not a whole mantle magma ocean.”

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