The Spinning Magnet

by Alanna Mitchell

the geophysicist Andrew Jackson Not the theoretical physicist from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen who is the expert on Hans Christian Ørsted.

  has kept growing, and has kept moving westward I. Wardinski and R. Holme, “A Time-Dependent Model of the Earth’s Magnetic Field and Its Secular Variation for the Period 1980–2000,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 111, no. B12 (2006): 11, doi:10.1029/2006JB004401.

  a massive blob of blue Ibid.

  CHAPTER 22

  what the models say the gyre might have looked like in 2015 Christopher C. Finlay, Julien Aubert, and Nicolas Gillet, “Gyre-Driven Decay of the Earth’s Magnetic Dipole,” Nature Communications 7 (2016): 10422, doi:10.1038/ncomms10422.

  A paper published in 2016 Javier F. Pavon-Carrasco and Angelo De Santis, “The South Atlantic Anomaly: The Key for a Possible Geomagnetic Reversal,” Frontiers in Earth Science 4 (2016): 40, doi:10.3389/feart.2016.00040.

  it’s not clear that rocks Jean-Pierre Valet and Alexandre Fournier, “Deciphering Records of Geomagnetic Reversals,” Reviews of Geophysics 54, no. 2 (2016): 410–46, doi:10.1002/2015RG000506.

  A recent paper by the Italian researcher Leonardo Sagnotti et al., “Extremely Rapid Directional Change During Matuyama-Brunhes Geomagnetic Polarity Reversal,” Geophysical Journal International 199, no. 2 (2014): 1110–24, doi:10.3389/feart.2016.00040.

  it is about twice as strong Valet and Fournier, “Deciphering Records,” passim.

  Nonlinear means the answer isn’t directly proportional to the sum of the components Thank you to Sabine Stanley and to Chris Finlay for this explanation, in communications with the author in July 2017.

  The most famous way of explaining the idea Kenneth Chang, “Edward N. Lorenz, a Meteorologist and a Father of Chaos Theory, Dies at 90,” New York Times, April 17, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/us/17lorenz.html.

  If a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil Edward Lorenz, “The Butterfly Effect,” World Scientific Series on Nonlinear Science Series A 39 (2000): 91–94.

  For more than 250 years June Barrow-Green, Poincaré and the Three Body Problem (Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 1997), 7.

  And here’s the sobering truth Alain Mazaud, “Geomagnetic Polarity Reversals,” in Encyclopedia of G and P, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 323.

  CHAPTER 23

  he wrote a famous commentary for Nature Peter Olson, “Geophysics: The Disappearing Dipole,” Nature 416, no. 6881 (2002): 591–94, doi:10.1038/416591a.

  That article accompanied another famous one Gauthier Hulot et al., “Small-Scale Structure of the Geodynamo Inferred from Oersted and Magsat Satellite Data,” Nature 416, no. 6881 (2002): 620–23, doi:10.1038/416620a.

  “could be the start of a reversal” David Gubbins, “Earth Science: Geomagnetic Reversals,” Nature 452, no. 7184 (2008): 165–67, doi:10.1038/452165a.

  meticulously outlining the case Catherine Constable and Monika Korte, “Is Earth’s Magnetic Field Reversing?” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 246, no. 1 (2006): 1–16, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2006.03.038.

  A French study Carlo Laj and Catherine Kissel, “An Impending Geomagnetic Transition? Hints from the Past,” Frontiers in Earth Science 3 (2015): 61, doi:10.3389/feart.2015.00061.

  A study by two Italian researchers Angelo De Santis and Enkelejda Qamili, “Geosystemics: A Systemic View of the Earth’s Magnetic Field and the Possibilities for an Imminent Geomagnetic Transition,” Pure and Applied Geophysics 172, no. 1 (2015): 75–89, doi:10.1007/s00024-014-0912-x.

  an ingenious study John A. Tarduno et al., “Antiquity of the South Atlantic Anomaly and Evidence for Top-Down Control on the Geodynamo,” Nature Communications 6 (2015), doi:10.1038/ncomms8865.

  he stressed the dramatic decay of the dipole John Tarduno and Vincent Hare, “Does an Anomaly in the Earth’s Magnetic Field Portend a Coming Pole Reversal?” The Conversation, February 5, 2017, updated February 17, 2017, http://theconversation.com/does-an-anomaly-in-the-earths-magnetic-field-portend-a-coming-pole-reversal-47528.

  A fascinating paper published in 2017 Erez Ben-Yosef et al., “Six Centuries of Geomagnetic Intensity Variations Recorded by Royal Judean Stamped Jar Handles,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 9 (2017): 2160–65, doi:10.1073/pnas.1615797114.

  adjured their colleagues to keep heart Jean-Pierre Valet and Alexandre Fournier, “Deciphering Records of Geomagnetic Reversals,” Reviews of Geophysics 54, no. 2 (2016): 410–46, doi:10.1002/2015RG000506.

  CHAPTER 24

  an extensive history of serious sodium fires Deukkwang An et al., “Suppression of Sodium Fires with Liquid Nitrogen,” Fire Safety Journal 58 (2013): 204–7, doi:10.1016/j.firesaf.2013.02.001.

  no certainty that the dynamo is operating the same way now Masaru Kono, “Geomagnetism in Perspective,” in Geomagnetism: Treatise on Geophysics, vol. 5, ed. Masaru Kono (Radarweg, The Netherlands: Elsevier, 2009).

  CHAPTER 25

  Baker is particularly interested See Daniel N. Baker and Louis J. Lanzerotti, “Resource Letter SW1: Space Weather,” American Journal of Physics 84, 166 (2016), doi:10.1119/1.4938403.

  the dynamo died David J. Stevenson, “Dynamos, Planetary and Satellite,” Encyclopedia of G and P, eds. David Gubbins and Emilio Herrero-Bervera (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007), 207.

  scoured away Mars’s atmosphere “NASA’s MAVEN Reveals Most of Mars’ Atmosphere Was Lost to Space,” NASA Press Release, April 30, 2017, available at https://mars.nasa.gov/news/2017/nasas-maven-reveals-most-of-mars-atmosphere-was-lost-to-space.

  CHAPTER 26

  clocked at 2,000 kilometers a second Ramon E. Lopez et al., “Sun Unleashes Halloween Storm,” Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 85, no. 11 (2004): 105–8, doi:10.1029/2004EO110002.

  Astronauts at the International Space Station Donald L. Evans et al., “Service Assessment: Intense Space Weather Storms October 19–November 7, 2003,” Silver Spring, MD: NOAA (2004).

  More than 100,000 miles of telegraph lines David H. Boteler, “The Super Storms of August/September 1859 and Their Effects on the Telegraph System,” Advances in Space Research 38, no. 2 (2006): 159–72, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2006.01.013.

  the benchmark for worst-case, life-threatening exposure L. W. Townsend et al., “Carrington Flare of 1859 as a Prototypical Worst-Case Solar Energetic Particle Event,” IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 50, no. 6 (2003): 2307–9, doi:10.1109/TNS.2003.821602.

  “The light appeared in streams” Freddy Moreno Cárdenas et al., “The Grand Aurorae Borealis Seen in Colombia in 1859,” Advances in Space Research 57, no. 1 (2016): 258, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2015.08.026.

  “The whole sky appeared mottled red” Ibid.

  whatever horrors the lights foretold Ibid., passim.

  The new telegraph system, with its electrical lines, became a target Boteler, “Super Storms,” 163. The detail on telegraph abnormalities is from his paper, passim.

  Carrington was watching the sun for dark spots Ibid., 160.

  Among the champions of the skeptics Ibid., 170.

  A separate study Ying D. Liu et al., “Observations of an Extreme Storm in Interplanetary Space Caused by Successive Coronal Mass Ejections,” Nature Communications 5 (2014): 3481, doi:10.1038/ncomms4481.

  it would have been about half again as strong as the Carrington event D. N. Baker et al., “A Major Solar Eruptive Event in July 2012: Defining Extreme Space Weather Scenarios,” Space Weather 11 (2013): 590, doi:10.1002/swe.20097.

  according to reports analyzing the potential fallout Edward J. Oughton et al., “Quantifying the Daily Economic Impact of Extreme Space Weather Due to Failure in Electricity Transmission Infrastructure,” Space Weather 15, doi:10.1002/2016SW001491; Mike Hapgood, “Lloyd’s 360° Risk Insight Briefing: Space Weather: Its Impact on Earth and Implications for
Business,” Lloyd’s of London, 2010.

  CHAPTER 27

  The first salvo Robert J. Uffen, “Influence of the Earth’s Core on the Origin and Evolution of Life,” Nature 198 (1963): 143–44, doi:10.1038/198143b0.

  Two of the mass extinctions coincided J. A. Jacobs, Reversals of the Earth’s Magnetic Field, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 293.

  There was an astonishingly high correlation Ian K. Crain, “Possible Direct Causal Relation Between Geomagnetic Reversals and Biological Extinctions,” Geological Society of America Bulletin 82 (1971): 2603–6, doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1971)82[2603:PDCRBG]2.0.CO;2.

  an increase in radioactive beryllium G. M. Raisbeck, F. Yiou, and D. Bourles, “Evidence for an Increase in Cosmogenic 10Be During a Geomagnetic Reversal,” Nature 315 (1985): 315–17, doi:10.1038/315315a0.

  widespread destruction of the ozone layer Karl-Heinz Glassmeier and Joachim Vogt, “Magnetic Polarity Transitions and Biospheric Effects: Historical Perspective and Current Developments,” Space Science Review 155, no. 1–4 (2010): 400, doi:10.1007/s11214-010-9659-6.

  the final die-off of the world’s Neanderthal population :Jean-Pierre Valet and Hélène Valladas, “The Laschamp-Mono Lake Geomagnetic Events and the Extinction of Neanderthal: A Causal Link or a Coincidence?” Quaternary Science Reviews 29, no. 27–28 (2010): 3887–93, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.09.010.

  The German physicists Karl-Heinz Glassmeier and Joachim Vogt Glassmeier and Vogt, “Magnetic Polarity Transitions,” 406.

  CHAPTER 28

  Helios Solar Storm Scenario E. Oughton, J. Copic, A. Skelton, V. Kesaite, Z. Y. Yeo, S. J. Ruffle, M. Tuveson, A. W. Coburn, and D. Ralph, “The Helios Solar Storm Scenario,” Cambridge Risk Framework Series, Centre for Risk Studies, University of Cambridge (2016).

  in a study published in 2017 E. Oughton et al., “Quantifying the Daily Economic Impact of Extreme Space Weather Due to Failure in Electricity Transmission Infrastructure,” Space Weather 15, no. 1 (2017): 65–83, doi:10.1002/2016SW001491.

  In a study financed by the UK Space Agency J. P. Eastwood et al., “The Economic Impact of Space Weather: Where Do We Stand?” Risk Analysis 37, no. 2 (2017): 206–18, doi:10.1111/risa.12765.

  a 2017 study on the effects of space weather on the satellite industry J. C. Green, J. Likar, and Yuri Shprits, “Impact of Space Weather on the Satellite Industry,” Space Weather 15, no. 6 (2017): 804–18, doi: 10.1002/2017SW001646.

  A lesson in the consequences D. J. Knipp et al., “The May 1967 Great Storm and Radio Disruption Event: Extreme Space Weather and Extraordinary Responses,” Space Weather 14, no. 9 (2016): 614–33, doi:10.1002/2016SW001423.

  CHAPTER 29

  his office at the University of Duisburg-Essen He has since been appointed to a chair at the Institute for Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Oldenburg in Germany.

  There are two leading theories Michael Winklhofer, “The Physics of Geomagnetic-Field Transduction in Animals,” IEEE Transactions on Magnetics 45, no. 12 (2009), doi:10.1109/TMAG.2009.2017940.

  as much as 2 percent magnetite Atsuko Kobayashi and Joseph L. Kirschvink, “Magnetoreception and Electromagnetic Field Effects: Sensory Perception of the Geomagnetic Field in Animals and Humans,” in Electromagnetic Fields Advances in Chemistry 250 (1995): 368, doi:10.1021/ba-1995-0250.ch021.

  we have consigned it to our subconscious Ibid., 374.

  Birds may even be able to process images Thorsten Ritz et al., “A Model for Photoreceptor-Based Magnetoreception in Birds,” Biophysical Journal 78, no. 2 (2000): 707–18, doi:10.1016/S0006-3495(00)76629-X.

  could disrupt on a massive scale Kenneth J. Lohmann et al., “Geomagnetic Imprinting: A Unifying Hypothesis of Long-Distance Natal Homing in Salmon and Sea Turtles,” PNAS 105, no. 49 (2008): 19096–101, doi:10.1073/pnas.0801859105.

  CHAPTER 30

  Reports of damage from exposure K. Sansare et al., “Early Victims of X-Rays,” Dentomaxillofacial Radiology 40 (2011): 123–25, doi:10.1259/dmfr/73488299.

  He died in 1904 at age thirty-nine Raymond A. Gagliardi, “Clarence Dally: An American Pioneer,” American Journal of Roentgenology 157, no. 5 (1991): 922, doi:10.2214/ajr.157.5.1927809.

  Astronauts are considered radiation workers Kira Bacal and Joseph Romano, “Radiation Health and Protection,” in Space Physiology and Medicine: From Evidence to Practice, eds. Arnaud E. Nicogossian et al. (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2016), 205.

  They may be even more apt to cause the biological injuries Ibid., 214.

  high levels of radiation has been found to carry many other health effects Ibid.

  they don’t know whether it has precisely the same effects Jancy McPhee and John Charles, eds., Human Health and Performance Risks of Space Exploration Missions: Evidence Reviewed by the NASA Human Research Program (Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2009), 123.

  Known as tissue-equivalent plastic H. E. Spence et al., “CRaTER: The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation Experiment on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission,” Space Science Reviews 150, no. 1 (2010): 243–84, doi:10.1007/s11214-009-9584-8.

  Results are still being analyzed M. D. Looper et al., “The Radiation Environment Near the Lunar Surface: Crater Observations and Geant4 Simulations,” Space Weather 11 (2013): 142–52, doi:10.1002/swe.20034.

  But bad news Bacal and Romano, “Radiation Health and Protection,” 211.

  a single intense solar energetic particle event could simply kill everyone Susan McKenna-Lawlor et al., “Overview of Energetic Particle Hazards During Prospective Manned Missions to Mars,” Planetary and Space Science 63–64 (2012): 123–32, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2011.06.017.

  selected bibliography

  Baker, Daniel N., and Louis J. Lanzerotti. “Resource Letter SW1: Space Weather.” American Journal of Physics 84, no. 3 (2016): 166–80. doi:10.1119/1.4938403.

  Baker, Daniel N., X. Li, A. Pulkkinen, C. M. Ngwira, M. L. Mays, A. B. Galvin, and K.D.C. Simunac. “A Major Solar Eruptive Event in July 2012: Defining Extreme Space Weather Scenarios.” Space Weather 11, no. 10 (2013): 585–91. doi:10.1002/swe.20097.

  Benjamin, Park. The Intellectual Rise in Electricity: A History. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1895.

  Bloxham, Jeremy, and David Gubbins. “The Evolution of the Earth’s Magnetic Field.” Scientific American 261, no. 6 (1989): 68–75. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1289-68.

  Bodanis, David. Electric Universe: How Electricity Switched On the Modern World. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005.

  Bolt, Bruce A. “Inge Lehmann: 13 May 1888–21 February 1993.” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 43 (1997): 286–301.

  Boteler, D. H. “The Super Storms of August/September 1859 and Their Effects on the Telegraph System.” Advances in Space Research 38, no. 2 (2006): 159–72. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2006.01.013.

  Brain, Robert M., Robert S. Cohen, and Ole Knudsen, eds. Hans Christian Ørsted and the Romantic Legacy in Science: Ideas, Disciplines, Practices. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2007.

  Brush, Stephen G. “Chemical History of the Earth’s Core.” Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 63, no. 47 (1982): 1185. doi:10.1029/eo063i047p01185.

  ———. “Discovery of the Earth’s Core.” American Journal of Physics 48, no. 9 (1980): 705–24. doi:10.1119/1.12026.

  ———. “Nineteenth-Century Debates About the Inside of the Earth: Solid, Liquid or Gas?” Annals of Science 36, no. 3 (1979): 225–54. doi:10.1080/00033797900200231.

  Bullard, Edward. “The Emergence of Plate Tectonics: A Personal View.” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 3, no. 1 (1975): 1–31. doi:10.1146/annurev.ea.03.050175.000245.

  Cawood, John. “The Magnetic Crusade: Science and Politics in Early Victorian Britain.” Isis 70, no. 4 (1979): 493–518. doi:10.1086/35
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  Constable, Catherine, and Monika Korte. “Is Earth’s Magnetic Field Reversing?” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 246, no. 1–2 (2006): 1–16. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2006.03.038.

  Cox, Allan, Richard R. Doell, and G. Brent Dalrymple. “Reversals of the Earth’s Magnetic Field.” Science 144, no. 3626 (1964): 1537–43. doi:10.1126/science.144.3626.1537.

  Cárdenas, Freddy Moreno, Sergio Cristancho Sánchez, and Santiago Vargas Dománguez. “The Grand Aurorae Borealis Seen in Colombia in 1859.” Advances in Space Research 57, no. 1 (2016): 257–67. doi:10.1016/j.asr.2015.08.026.

  Dalrymple, G. Brent. Ancient Earth, Ancient Skies: The Age of Earth and Its Cosmic Surroundings. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2004.

  Dietz, Robert S. “Continent and Ocean Basin Evolution by Spreading of the Sea Floor.” Nature 190, no. 4779 (1961): 854–57. doi:10.1038/190854a0.

  Eastwood, J. P., E. Biffis, M. A. Hapgood, L. Green, M. M. Bisi, R. D. Bentley, R. Wicks, L.-A. Mckinnell, M. Gibbs, and C. Burnett. “The Economic Impact of Space Weather: Where Do We Stand?” Risk Analysis 37, no. 2 (2017): 206–18. doi:10.1111/risa.12765.

  Einstein, Albert. The Meaning of Relativity: Including the Relativistic Theory of the Non-Symmetric Field. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.

  Fara, Patricia. An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Icon, 2003.

  ———. Fatal Attraction: Magnetic Mysteries of the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Icon, 2005.

  Feynman, Richard Phillips, Matthew Sands, and Robert B. Leighton. The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1989.

  Finlay, Christopher C., Julien Aubert, and Nicolas Gillet. “Gyre-Driven Decay of the Earth’s Magnetic Dipole.” Nature Communications 7 (2016): 10422. doi:10.1038/ncomms10422.

  Forbes, Nancy, and Basil Mahon. Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2014.

  Glassmeier, Karl-Heinz, and Joachim Vogt. “Magnetic Polarity Transitions and Biospheric Effects.” Space Science Reviews 155, no. 1–4 (2010): 387–410. doi:10.1007/s11214-010-9659-6.