Scientists are using clues from ancient artifacts to help them predict the future of the magnetic field.

What Happens When Earth’s Magnetic Poles Reverse? –
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Ancient Jars Hold Clues About Earth’s Fluctuating Magnetic Fields

“Geoscientists have little knowledge of what has been occurring with the magnetic field during recent millenniums. The current decline could be just a squiggle of typical fluctuations. So they turned to pottery and the record keeping of ancient bureaucrats.”

Why Earth’s Inner and Outer Cores Rotate in Opposite Directions

“Scientists have long suspected that Earth’s magnetic field – which protects life from harmful space radiation – drifts in a slightly westerly direction. That theory was established in the 1690s, when geophysicist Edmund Halley (the same Halley who spotted the eponymous comet) sailed aboard a research vessel through the South Atlantic Ocean and collected enough compass readings to identify this shift.”

You might still be a simple bacterium, if not for magnetism

“Scientists think that about 500 million years ago, Earth’s core solidified, turbocharging our magnetic field. This would have allowed the atmosphere to hold more gas, in part shielding early life from powerful solar rays – and allowing multicellular life to evolve.”
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