The North Pole is shifting. Not the geographic North Pole, but the magnetic North Pole. The two are different.
The geographic North Pole, or true north, will always stay the geographic North Pole.
However, the magnetic North Pole though is in constant motion, guided by Earth’s core. At the very center is solid iron. This is surrounded by an ocean of hot, liquid metal.
Since this is moving, it creates electric currents and a magnetic field. This area is obviously too deep to study, so scientists deduced this movement from the surface magnetic field movement.
Throughout history, there have been small and large shifts of the Poles. In fact, there are times in history where the magnetic South Pole was what we call the North Pole. The last time this happened was 780,000 years ago. Scientists discovered this from deep core samples showing sediment that indicated a complete reversal.
In the last 100 years, the magnetic North Pole has moved about 1,100 kilometers. But, it has shown an increase in movement recently. Scientists believe this movement could result in the Pole shifting from Canada and more toward Siberia at a faster pace than previously thought.
If this migration continues, Alaska could lose the beautiful Northern Lights.
Additionally, to prevent navigation problems, both GPS and compasses need to be recalibrated to compensate for the differences in magnetic and geographic pole location.
And in honor of Black History Month, we recognize a great black American explorer and navigator, Matthew Henson. He, along with Robert Peary and four Inuit men, was one of the first explorers to have reached the North Pole in 1909.
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