Previously, scientists had told us that the magnetic field was weakening by about 5 percent every 100 years.
But now we are being told that data collected from the SWARM satellite indicate that the rate of decay is now 5 percent per decade...
It's well established that in modern times, the axial dipole component of Earth's main magnetic field is decreasing by approximately 5% per century. Recently, scientists using the SWARM satellite announced that their data indicate a decay rate ten times faster, or 5% per decade.In case you didn't quite get that, 5 percent per decade is 10 times faster than 5 percent per century.
If the rate of decay continues at this pace, or if it speeds up even more, we could be looking at a mass extinction event that is beyond what most people would dare to imagine.
As more solar radiation reaches Earth, we would expect to see a rise in cancer rates, and this is something that even National Geographic has acknowledged...
However, if the magnetic field gets substantially weaker and stays that way for an appreciable amount of time Earth will be less protected from the oodles of high-energy particles that are constantly flying around in space. This means that everything on the planet will be exposed to higher levels of radiation, which over time could produce an increase in diseases like cancer, as well as harm delicate spacecraft and power grids on Earth.Of course we are already seeing this. Cancer rates have been rising all over the world, and if you live in the United States there is a one in three chance that you will get cancer in your lifetime.
But as the magnetic field continues to weaken, things will get worse.
A lot worse.
The weaker the magnetic field gets, the amount of solar radiation that will reach us will rise, and eventually it would get so bad that the entire human race would be in jeopardy. The following comes from Futurism...
Radiation and cosmic rays are a real concern for NASA, especially when it comes to long-term spaceflight. Astronauts on a mission to Mars could undergo up to 1000 times the exposure to radiation and cosmic rays that they would get on Earth. If Earth's magnetic field disappeared, the entire human race - and all of life, in fact - would be in serious danger. Cosmic rays would bombard our bodies and could even damage our DNA, increasing worldwide risk of cancer and other illnesses. The flashes of light visible when we close our eyes would be the least of our problems.And even if some of us found a way to survive underground for a while, we still wouldn't be able to survive because solar winds would strip away our planet's atmosphere and oceans...
Without Earth's magnetic field, solar winds - streams of electrically charged particles that flow from the sun - would strip away the planet's atmosphere and oceans. As such, Earth's magnetic field helped to make life on the planet possible, researchers have said.So could such a scenario actually happen?
Well, some scientists are saying that our magnetic field "could be gone in as little as 500 years", but they are telling us not to worry because Earth's magnetic poles will "flip" and things will eventually return to normal...
The magnetic field surrounding Earth is weakening, and scientists say it could be gone in as little as 500 years.
The result? Earth's magnetic poles could, literally, flip upside down.
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