Earth's magnetic field could flip within a human lifetime
Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 12:01
in Physics & Chemistry
Earth's last magnetic reversal took place 786,000 years ago and happened very quickly, in less than 100 years -- roughly a human lifetime. The rapid flip, much faster than the thousands of years most geologists thought, comes as new measurements show the planet's magnetic field is weakening 10 times faster than normal and could drop to zero in a few thousand years.