Scientists are at a loss. Low-magnetic South Atlantic is expanding

A new scientific study has revealed that the magnetic anomaly region of the South Atlantic where the intensity of the magnetic field is declining for mysterious reasons has expanded dramatically over the past years.

Scientists are trying to solve the mystery of how this strange phenomenon and its possible effects on humans and life on Earth will form in the future.

More complicated.

The Earth’s magnetic field is essential for life on our planet, as it plays the role of a powerful shield that protects organisms from cosmic radiation and charged solar particles.

The magnetic field is often portrayed as a bipolar magnet that tilts about 11 degrees from the axis of rotation.

But the magnetic anomaly observed by scientists in a vast area between Africa and South America with low magnetic density shows that the Earth’s magnetic field is actually more complex than scientists previously thought.

Researchers from the University of Leeds and the Danish Technical University participated in a new study published in Nature Geoscience at the beginning of May.

The study revealed that the magnetic anomaly area of the South Atlantic continues to evolve and expand according to ESA satellite data.

A mystery.

Although scientists know that the Earth’s magnetic field is created by the movement of molten iron that circulates in the outer nucleus, such as the dynamo of a bicycle, generating electrical currents that in turn create the magnetic field, magnetic depressions and how they occur are a mystery to them, and the time and place of their occurrence cannot be predicted.

But some scientists link the areas of magnetic anomaly to another phenomenon, the reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field when the Earth’s northern magnetic pole becomes in its south and the South Pole in its north.

Unlike the geographical Arctic at a fixed location, scientists have observed since 1831 that the magnetic north’s location changes over time and is moving slowly from the Canadian polar regions towards Siberia.

Rapid change

Since the 1990s, this displacement has gained a speed of between 50 and 60 kilometers per year, compared to less than 15 kilometres previously, which means that the global magnetic model needs to be updated frequently, which is vital for navigation on smartphones, for example.

Research has shown that the reflection of the Earth’s magnetic field occurs every few hundred thousand years, but it is not entirely clear how these reflections can be linked to what is currently happening with anomalies in the South Atlantic, scientists say.

Some scientists have hypothesized that this could be the result of a huge reservoir of dense rocks beneath Africa called the Large African Low Speed Zone.

What is certain, however, is that the anomaly of the South Atlantic does not seem to be static, as it has increased in size since 1970 as it moves westward at a rate of about 20 kilometres per year.

New data provided by esa’s Swarm satellites also showed that a second low-density magnetic centre had emerged over the past five years within this anomaly off the coast of South-West Africa in a split.

Earth Shield Magnetic Field (ESA-ESA)

Is there anything to worry about?

At present, there is nothing to worry about, as the European Space Agency suggests that the most significant effects at present are largely limited to technical failures that can occur to satellites and spacecraft.

This is caused by exposure to a larger than usual amount of charged particles in low-Earth orbit as they cross the magnetic low south Atlantic.

But that doesn’t mean that the importance of this magnetic anomaly should be underestimated, as the Earth’s magnetic field in the past two centuries has lost about 9% of its strength on average.

“The challenge now is to understand the processes at the core of the Earth that are driving these changes,” geophysicist Jürgen Matska of the German Research Center for Earth Sciences tells Science Altert.

Source: NASA, Other News