How long pole shift

Astronomy Day. The Complete Star Atlas. It's been , years since this happened — and some scientists say that Earth's magnetic poles are long overdue for a switch. Turtles and salmon and whales, oh my! Tumultuous time for tech The direct effect on mankind could be only slight, but not so for technology.

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We know this because we're already seeing a glimpse of this in an area called the South Atlantic Anomaly. Turns out, the direction of a portion of the magnetic field deep beneath this area has already flipped!

And scientists say that's one reason why the field has been steadily weakening since As a result, the Hubble Space Telescope and other satellites often shut down their sensitive electronics as they pass over the area.

And astronauts on the International Space Station reported seeing a higher number of bright flashes of light in their vision, thought to be caused by high-energy cosmic rays that the weaker field can't hold back. Since experts started measuring the Anomaly a few decades ago, it has grown in size and now covers a fifth This is so extreme that it could be a sign we're on the brink of a polar flip, or we may already be in the midst of one!

Mitchell: They don't know. The last time the poles reversed was , years ago so it's not like we have a record for this.

Mitchell: In the past 65 million years since the last mass extinction there have been reversals roughly every , years.

So what gives? Well, scientists haven't figured it out yet. It's unnerving to think that our modern way of life — banking, the stock exchange, missile tracking, GPS — relies on the outcome of something we can neither predict, nor control.

And that's with Earth's magnetic field at its current strength. We may not be able to stop a polar flip, but we can at least start to take measures to minimize the damage. The first step?