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Subscribe to RSSWFLA's Brooks Garner reports on the pole shift.
Don't think of this as another sign of the apocalypse, but Earth's magnetic north pole has been shifting enough that Tampa's airport has to repaint the numbers on its runways.
Tampa International Airport in Florida has closed its primary runway until Jan. 13 to change the numeric designations at each end, as well as the signage on taxiways leading to the runway. The Tampa Tribune said the runway had been designated 18R/36L, indicating its alignment along the 180-degree approach from the north and the 360-degree approach from the south. Now the numbers are being revised to read 19R/1L (190 degrees and 10 degrees).
Two other runways will be closed later this month for a similar signage change, the Tribune reported.
The changes are required by the Federal Aviation Administration, which wants the numeric designations to reflect magnetic-north headings to the nearest 10-degree increment.
For decades, the magnetic north pole has been migrating from Canadian Arctic territory toward Russia. That shift has accelerated in recent years, and current estimates suggest that the pole is moving at almost 40 miles a year. Maps from Natural Resources Canada chart the movement since 1831 and project the trend through 2050. Movements in the magnetic poles are caused by the motion of molten iron at Earth's core, which serves as the planet's magnetic dynamo. Here's how NASA explains the process.
Airports generally change their runway designations every few decades, depending on how the pole shifts shake out numerically. For example, Stansted Airport in the London area renamed its 23/05 runway as 22/04 in July 2009 to reflect the magnetic shift. "It'll roughly be another 56 years before we have to consider changing it again," Trevor Waldock, head of airside operations at Stansted, told the BBC at the time.
A catastrophic pole shift is one of the oft-used plot devices in doomsday tales — and some of the doomsayers have tried to link the phenomenon to the 2012 Maya apocalypse. Earth's magnetic poles have been known to reverse themselves every 400,000 years or so, in a process that's outlined in the video above.
This NASA Web page explains that the shift in the magnetic poles, or even a pole reversal, need not be feared. "As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn't cause any harm to life on Earth," NASA says. But a lot of runway numbers might need to be repainted.
More about doomsday nightmares:
- Alien invaders vs. the truth squad
- Solar cycle sparks doomsday buzz
- Doomsday debate over Betelgeuse
- 2012: The end is not near
Update for 8:45 p.m. ET: NBC News' Brian Williams weighs in on the pole shift and the Tampa airport's makeover in this "Nightly News" video clip.
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Wow. Idiocy abounds.
This is the effect of letting flat-earthers have ANY input into the makeup of our children's textbooks.
Bet'cha this batch of dodos can be traced to the hysterically overreacting uberreligious nuts who were horrified at the idea of independent thinking in the '50s and '60s.
I really wish my brain could understand what the hell you people are talking about.
If you're serious, you might benefit from a visit to the library and some time spent with a college level geology textbook.
1. Find a compass.
2. Stay away from all magnetic 'things' that will make it point the wrong way.
3. Follow the direction it is pointing for as long as you can travel.
4. Mark the location you end up on a map.
5. Do the same thing (1-4) 50 years later starting at the same place.
6. You will most likely notice that you end up in a different spot even though the compass says you were heading the same north direction both times.
This is because the location on the earth that was magnetic in such a way that is was the magnetic north is no longer magnetic in that way. A new location will be the magnetic north. If you were in an old ship or plane you might not make it home if your compass points the wrong way. California would be to the 'east' (and New York to the 'west')(if you are in a 'middle state' such as Kansas). according to a compass after the earth swapped poles (flipped magnetic poles completely). But California would still be west according to the map since it didn't actually move. (Only the compass pointing direction has changed.)
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Could this be the cause of the dead birds that happened in earlier this month around the Arkansas and Kentucky? It reminds me of the movie, "The Day After Tomorrow". The birds started crashing into each other and into the walls of buildings because their internal compasses were not working due to the shift in the magnetic pull of the earth crust.
They say the birds were due to fireworks. 'Happy New Year!'
What they don't mention in this article is what they plan to due during the in between time of the pole swap. During that time both main poles are supposed to weaken and smaller poles (already present around areas such as Bermuda) are supposed to become stronger. So your measured poles might have anything to do with my measured poles. And more solar radiation will hit the earth since it is not deflected by the major poles. It probably will not be doomsday but it could be quite a headache.