1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:06,680 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. The whole gang's here, 2 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:09,440 Speaker 1: even in spirit. So let's go stuff you should know. 3 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:13,440 Speaker 2: Uh yeah, you put this one together. This is a 4 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 2: good one. 5 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:18,760 Speaker 3: We're talking about the magnetic field, and specifically the switching 6 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 3: of Earth's magnetic pole, and I guess we should just 7 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:27,080 Speaker 3: start talking about what the magnetic field of the Earth is, right, Yeah. 8 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:29,160 Speaker 1: You kind of can't really get past that one, because 9 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: apparently it seems to be fairly peculiar to Earth to 10 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: have a really solid inner core made if I think 11 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: iron and nickel, and that that is basically bathed in 12 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: a bath of molten outer core. And because that molten 13 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:48,239 Speaker 1: outer core is constantly roiling and convecting and doing all 14 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: sorts of crazy motions, it actually produces a dynamo effect 15 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,400 Speaker 1: where a magnetic field is generated. That inner core essentially 16 00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: becomes a giant bar magnet with a north pole and 17 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:04,640 Speaker 1: south pole. Yeah, and that magnetic field radiates from the 18 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:07,760 Speaker 1: center of the Earth outward into outer space, and it 19 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:12,880 Speaker 1: does some pretty cool stuff. One, it prevents high energy 20 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:15,959 Speaker 1: particles that are bombarding Earth at all time from reaching 21 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,440 Speaker 1: Earth generally and killing us, just shooting right through your throat. 22 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 1: And out the other side, so life can exist on 23 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: Earth and then less importantly but more beautifully also creates 24 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:30,479 Speaker 1: the auroras. 25 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:35,400 Speaker 3: And also why I wear a kevlar turtleneck actually not 26 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 3: a dicky really because. 27 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 2: It gets warm in the summer. 28 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:38,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's smart. 29 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:43,400 Speaker 2: So you've got that bipolar core. 30 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 3: You know, we have the North pole in the South 31 00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:48,160 Speaker 3: pole geographically, like, we know where those are. 32 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:49,559 Speaker 2: We've mapped those out. 33 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 3: They're great, everyone loves them, but they really have nothing 34 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 3: to do with the actual magnetic poles of the Earth. 35 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 3: Two different things. The Earth's poles, as we will see, 36 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,080 Speaker 3: they move around a lot because of that molten core 37 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:09,920 Speaker 3: is unstable and it moves. That that roiling sort of 38 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:14,079 Speaker 3: molten gunky we're talking about is weaker in some places, 39 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:18,280 Speaker 3: it's stronger in some places. And you know, you kind 40 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:20,639 Speaker 3: of likened it to a pot of water like bubbling 41 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,000 Speaker 3: and the bubbles like pop and fade away. The same 42 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 3: thing is going on there that creates instability and sort 43 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 3: of just movement. 44 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:33,400 Speaker 1: Yeah. So that's suffice to say that the Earth's magnetic 45 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:37,360 Speaker 1: field is not constantly stable. It's constantly changing. And since 46 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:39,560 Speaker 1: some spots are weaker than other spots, that means the 47 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: poles can actually move around, and they do. They wander about. 48 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:48,799 Speaker 1: It's called excursions, and they can move all over the place. 49 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,920 Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, when they what seems 50 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:55,679 Speaker 1: to pass what seems to be a threshold, they flip 51 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, the South Pole is that 52 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 1: the geographical nor Pole area and the North Pole is 53 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:06,800 Speaker 1: down in Antarctica somewhere. And it happens. And we've just 54 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:08,880 Speaker 1: recently learned about this kind of thing. 55 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's called polarity reversal. 56 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 3: There's some disagreement among the scientific community about how often 57 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 3: this happens, how quickly it happens. There was a study 58 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:26,919 Speaker 3: in twenty twenty from the Scripts Oceanographic Institute in San Diego, 59 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 3: San Diego, Right, Yeah, he said, sd I didn't think 60 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 3: it was South Dakota. 61 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 2: Definitely, or southern Durham, North Carolina. 62 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:39,000 Speaker 1: It could have been that one. It's definitely not South 63 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:40,080 Speaker 1: Dakota though, I'll tell you that. 64 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:40,960 Speaker 2: Yeah. 65 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 3: So they had a new model based on one hundred 66 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 3: thousand years worth of data and they said, actually, these 67 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 3: poles are wandering like a lot. It's a real walk about. 68 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:54,480 Speaker 3: They're wandering about ten degrees a year. That is equal 69 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:59,680 Speaker 3: to the distance between Atlanta and Toronto. For Aussie friends, 70 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 3: brisbe in Melbourne or if you're in London. Those are 71 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:06,760 Speaker 3: the three places that listen to us basically, sure Canada, 72 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 3: Australia in the UK, or London and Prague. And that 73 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:13,680 Speaker 3: is about ten times what scientists thought before the study 74 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:14,000 Speaker 3: came out. 75 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, the pole can wander that far in a year. 76 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: A year. You just like, when you hear about this, 77 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:21,719 Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, that's that's where I didn't know they 78 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: could move. Maybe it just kind of gyrates a little bit. No, 79 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: it can travel from Toronto to Atlanta in the year 80 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:29,480 Speaker 1: and back, and it wanders all over the place. It's 81 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 1: not like it follows like a set line. Because again, 82 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:36,080 Speaker 1: right the molten inner or outer courts roiling, it looks 83 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:38,920 Speaker 1: probably a lot like the surface of the sun, and 84 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 1: so all the little spots in weird like areas and everything. 85 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 1: That's where the kind of like the magnetic poles actually 86 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:50,360 Speaker 1: traveled like down a plinko set essentially, but is severear 87 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:52,919 Speaker 1: plinko set. If you can wrap your mind around that 88 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:53,360 Speaker 1: kind of. 89 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 3: Thing, all right, Well I'm gonna wrap my mind around it, 90 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 3: and we're gonna take a break, and then I'm gonna 91 00:04:58,240 --> 00:05:23,160 Speaker 3: unwrap my mind right after this. All right, so we 92 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,240 Speaker 3: were talking about this thing is it's really holland these 93 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:29,279 Speaker 3: poles are moving around and they can actually flip. 94 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 2: And the last time that happened. 95 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:33,680 Speaker 3: Was about forty two thousand years ago in what's called 96 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:38,640 Speaker 3: the La Champ I guess the La Champ excursion, great 97 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:42,599 Speaker 3: man name, and this was the lava flow in France, 98 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 3: of which it was named after because of the fossil 99 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:48,960 Speaker 3: record I guess that we discovered in the nineteen sixties. 100 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 3: And during this excursion, the North Pole went across North America. 101 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:57,320 Speaker 3: Then said, all right, now I'm gonna drop down into 102 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 3: the Pacific or through the Pacific to Antarctica, and then 103 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:03,919 Speaker 3: I'm the North Pole, by the way, and I'm going 104 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:07,080 Speaker 3: to stay there in Antarctica for about four hundred years, 105 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 3: and then I'm going to go back up to the 106 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 3: Indian Ocean to the actual geographical North Pole. 107 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:15,440 Speaker 1: Yeah, roughly that area, back to generally where the north 108 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:19,680 Speaker 1: magnetic north Pole typically is. Right. Yeah, that's really fast. 109 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:23,600 Speaker 1: Four hundred years on a geological timescale is like a 110 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: blink is too slow as a description or analogy, And 111 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: so the Lashapis excursion seems to have had some pretty 112 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,800 Speaker 1: significant effects on the planet at forty two thousand years ago, 113 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:40,599 Speaker 1: coincides with a bunch of weird stuff that happened on Earth. 114 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,960 Speaker 1: There was a lot of glaciers that expanded and all 115 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: sorts of surprising places. The wind patterns changed globally, the megafauna, 116 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,080 Speaker 1: a lot of megafauna species disappeared from the fossil records, 117 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:59,280 Speaker 1: and so too did the Neanderthals. It was a really 118 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: really sick, magnificant period of like surprising and kind of 119 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:08,280 Speaker 1: dismal activity in Earth's history. And they have traced this 120 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 1: to basically a weaken in the magnetic field. That is 121 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: probable the magnetic field became very weak and that allowed 122 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:18,720 Speaker 1: the poles to flip very quickly, and that it wasn't 123 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: necessarily the poles flipping that caused all of this weird 124 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: stuff to happen, but that the magnetic field being weakened 125 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 1: probably also let this weird stuff happening. So the reversal 126 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:34,960 Speaker 1: of polarity was a symptom, just like say the disappearance 127 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: of the Neanderthals was, or the change in wind patterns, 128 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:40,720 Speaker 1: where they were all symptoms of this weakened magnetic field 129 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:41,360 Speaker 1: around Earth. 130 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:43,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, you talked about it, you know, sort of acting 131 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:48,520 Speaker 3: like a force field against that particle bombardment that probably 132 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 3: weakened it enough that they were bombarded. The ozone layer 133 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:54,560 Speaker 3: was damaged, a lot of UV light is just baking 134 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 3: the Earth, and it was just bad, bad enough where 135 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:00,400 Speaker 3: scientists obviously are like, well, when is this going to 136 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:04,160 Speaker 3: happen again? Because we're in store for something pretty rough, 137 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:07,800 Speaker 3: And what they've kind of come out with was a 138 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:10,640 Speaker 3: we're not sure exactly when it's going to happen again 139 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:13,280 Speaker 3: because you can't look back. I think you mentioned earlier. 140 00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 3: It doesn't necessarily happen in a pattern that you can 141 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:16,480 Speaker 3: count on. 142 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't seem to. 143 00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 3: Yeah, so they can't say like, all right, well here's 144 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 3: when it's going to happen again, But they do think 145 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:26,360 Speaker 3: this was a really the La Shamp excursion was sort 146 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:30,240 Speaker 3: of a rare, fast thing, and if it does happen again, 147 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:34,040 Speaker 3: it'll probably be over the order of thousands of years, 148 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 3: and it's not going to be the kind of thing 149 00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:39,560 Speaker 3: like most of the other times it happened. It was 150 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:42,080 Speaker 3: over a much slower time period. The La Champ was 151 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 3: just so fast it wrecked everything. And it probably wouldn't 152 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:47,200 Speaker 3: be that bad if it happened again, because it would 153 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:49,840 Speaker 3: be on a much slower, you know, thousands and thousands 154 00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:50,680 Speaker 3: of years timeline. 155 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:53,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean tens of thousands of years versus hundreds 156 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:57,680 Speaker 1: of years. That's pretty significant as far as differences go, right, 157 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:00,520 Speaker 1: And if if it sounds kind of like if it 158 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:02,440 Speaker 1: rings a bell. We talked a little bit about this 159 00:09:02,559 --> 00:09:06,640 Speaker 1: in the plate tectonics episode, where like the magnetic striping 160 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:10,360 Speaker 1: at the bottom of the sea is basically lava flows 161 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:15,360 Speaker 1: recording reversals in polarity of Earth's poles. This is very 162 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,320 Speaker 1: much what we're talking about. So because they think it 163 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:21,800 Speaker 1: happens over you know, tens of thousands of years, and 164 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:23,720 Speaker 1: if you look back in the fossil record at other 165 00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:27,440 Speaker 1: times that coincide with polarity reversals, there doesn't seem to 166 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:30,320 Speaker 1: have been anywhere near the kind of catastrophic events that 167 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 1: came from the La Shop excursion. They're not particularly worried 168 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:37,800 Speaker 1: about it, but we do know that if it did 169 00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:41,600 Speaker 1: happen on like a normal slow timescale, we still have 170 00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:44,559 Speaker 1: to adapt because a lot of our technology relies on 171 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:46,600 Speaker 1: a stable magnetic field. 172 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:49,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they have to take that stuff into account. 173 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:52,680 Speaker 3: Like when they look at the fossil record, maybe not 174 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:56,440 Speaker 3: much of anything happened because they weren't using satellites and 175 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 3: they you know, didn't have things floating around in space. 176 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:03,560 Speaker 3: But there's an area called the South Atlantic Anomaly between 177 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:06,800 Speaker 3: South America and South Africa where there is a weaker 178 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:10,720 Speaker 3: magnetic field than elsewhere on Earth, and when satellites and 179 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:13,640 Speaker 3: stuff go through there in spacecraft there are issues. 180 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 1: They're like can you hear me? Are you still there? 181 00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:21,960 Speaker 3: And they say, in space, no one can hear you scream. 182 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:23,280 Speaker 2: Name that movie. 183 00:10:24,559 --> 00:10:27,080 Speaker 1: Space Balls exactly. 184 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:31,880 Speaker 3: So that's an example of what can happen with a 185 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:35,840 Speaker 3: just a somewhat weaker magnetic field. So they would have 186 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:38,840 Speaker 3: to account for that stuff ahead of time, know it's 187 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:42,120 Speaker 3: coming and account for it. I think there would be 188 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 3: some economic impact, but I mean I think who is 189 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:49,080 Speaker 3: at the Cambridge Center for Risk Studies said that it 190 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:52,520 Speaker 3: could be like a six to forty two billion dollar 191 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:57,720 Speaker 3: cost for the United States, which honestly, that's chump change 192 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:00,360 Speaker 3: when you look at you know, budgets of the United States. 193 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:04,640 Speaker 1: But that's a day, yeah, a day, So it's. 194 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:07,840 Speaker 2: Not like uh. 195 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 3: I mean, that's a lot of money obviously, but it's 196 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:12,160 Speaker 3: not like that would wreck the American economy anything. 197 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:15,320 Speaker 1: It depends on how long it went on for you know, well, yeah, 198 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:16,600 Speaker 1: I guess so. I mean, if they didn't get up 199 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:19,040 Speaker 1: and running within a few hours, that could be you know. 200 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:22,199 Speaker 2: It could add up, It could add up. 201 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:24,240 Speaker 1: Speaking of knowing it's coming, I want to go ahead 202 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:26,240 Speaker 1: and stem the tide of emails. I know that Chuck 203 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:29,120 Speaker 1: was talking about alien By the way, everyone. 204 00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:31,520 Speaker 2: Who could Jos baseballs. 205 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:34,200 Speaker 1: One other thing, Chuck, because the disappearance of the Neanderthals 206 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 1: coincides with the weakening of the magnetosphere and probably bombardment 207 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:43,280 Speaker 1: of UV radiation and ions. Yeah, maybe right that the 208 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:47,719 Speaker 1: Neanderthals really didn't help. You might be onto something. Man, 209 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:50,360 Speaker 1: that's an old one. You got anything else? 210 00:11:51,559 --> 00:11:53,160 Speaker 2: I got nothing else? JM. 211 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:59,560 Speaker 1: Well, then short stuff is out. Stuff you should know 212 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:01,120 Speaker 1: is a pretty action of iHeartRadio. 213 00:12:01,640 --> 00:12:04,839 Speaker 2: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 214 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:07,920 Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.