Earth's magnetic north pole is now moving towards the earth, and this phenomenon is not unusual but will have long-ranging implications on defence, airports and directional drilling companies.
It should be also noted that the movement of the magnetic north pole towards Siberia at an accelerated speed of 55 kilometres per year will also affect human's day to day life, as this movement will negatively impact smartphones and their navigation apps.
Magnetic sensors of phones will be affected
In the modern world, most of the people usually rely on navigation apps for travelling purposes, and the earth's magnetic north pole shifts could negatively affect the operations of these apps. The majority of the smartphones have three magnetic sensors, and they play a crucial role in assisting you while travelling, whether to go straight or take a left or right turn.
These same sensors enable Google Assistant which will help you to select your directions while travelling. As the magnetic field around the world is now moving, smartphones will be unable to determine the direction it is facing.
An urgent update awaiting?
Even though the magnetic north pole is moving much faster than expected, experts believe that the poles will not switch places at least for the next 1000 years. Most of the magnetometers operate using the World Magnetic Model (WMM), and it provides a five-year forecast on the movement of the magnetic field.
Usually, the world magnetic model used to get updated every five years, but due to the rapid movement of the north magnetic pole, it was updated last February, and an upcoming update is expected to take place in 2020.
Earth's magnetic field weakening
Experts believe that the earth's magnetic field is weakening now, and it is causing this unexpected acceleration of the shifting process. However, the magnetic field will gain strength again in the future and will stop the drifting process. Experts believe that such magnetic field shifts have happened in the past, and it may not create any negative impacts on life on earth.
"The Earth's magnetic field is weakening, and whether it collapses in the next two thousand years or the next two, it will eventually collapse and flip as it seems to have done regularly for many millions of years. It's happened hundreds of times before, and there is absolutely no evidence that it's ever caused a mass extinction or even a noticeable disruption to life on Earth," wrote Stuart Hardwick, a science fiction writer and journalist in Quora.
