A photo from open sources
The remains of ancient huts in southern Africa left the keys to understanding abnormal places in the Earth’s magnetic field – and the role that it plays in periodic inversions of the magnetic poles.
The land of this region of the Black Continent contains a key mineral, which “recorded” magnetic field information during each ritual burning of ancient huts. These mineral records told researchers about a strange section of the Earth’s magnetic field, so called the “Brazilian Magnetic Anomaly” and pointed the way to the mechanism that affects the sudden migration of magnetic poles Of the earth.
Scientists previously suggested that magnetic pole inversions occur in random places however thanks to new research it becomes obvious that this is not so.
Brazilian magnetic anomaly is a dent in Earth shield created by strong cosmic radiation. It may be the most dangerous place in the Earth’s magnetosphere for satellites and spaceships, because in this place electronic systems become very vulnerable. Even the Hubble Space Telescope, getting into abnormal zones, does not receive signals properly. This is an area where, instead of repelling hazardous radiation outward, a part of the Earth’s magnetic field attracts it inward. And this the abnormal zone is growing! Perhaps due to the growth of the anomalous zone there is a decrease in the total magnetic field of the Earth.
Researchers believe that this type of anomaly is temporary, because it is caused by changes in currents in the outer Earth’s iron core, which generates the planet’s magnetic field. Anomalies affecting the weakening of the magnetic field can provoke remagnetization of the planet – when the north and south the poles of the earth are reversed. This event may occur in the next millennium. Generally the process of pole change occurs every 200,000 to 300,000 years. Although, from the last a complete reversal of the planet’s magnetic field has already occurred more than 780 000 years.
According to a new study, it turned out that Brazilian magnetic anomaly has existed for about 1000 years and can play an important role in the Earth’s magnetic-pole turns. Throughout all this time, residents of ancient African villages regularly (for ritual purposes) burned their huts, giving them modern scientists the key to unraveling the secrets of the anomalous zone. Last minute the houses reached temperatures above 1000 degrees Celsius. This the temperature was enough to melt such a magnetic compound like magnetite, which was part of clay floors huts. During cooling, magnetite fixes the magnetization reversal of the field Earth and retains these records for centuries.
After deciphering the records stored by magnetite, scientists came to the conclusion that over the last millennium the Earth’s magnetic field steadily weakening. The assumption that a huge a role in the discharge of the magnetic field and the possible change of poles plays Brazilian anomaly. And although the results of the study cannot predict the exact time of the next magnetic field reversal planets, but detecting the relationship between field irregularities near Earth’s core and the weakening of magnetic poles is another a huge step towards deciphering an incredibly complex magnetic system, which protects humanity from deadly radiation outer space.
Time
