From an article by Maya Wei-Haas in National Geographic in February 2019.
I have to admit that I did not recall that there are 3 North poles. The first is over the axis of rotation of the earth. This is True North. The second is magnetic north – the location where you compass points. And perhaps less well known, there is geomagnetic north which is a point off the northwest coast of Greenland.
Magnetic north has never sat still. In the last hundred years or so, the direction in which our compasses steadfastly point has lumbered ever northward, driven by Earth’s churning liquid outer core some 1,800 miles beneath the surface. Yet in recent years, scientists noticed something unusual: Magnetic north’s routine plod has shifted into high gear, sending it galloping across the Northern Hemisphere—and no one can entirely explain why.
The changes have been so large that scientists began working on an emergency update for the World Magnetic Model, the mathematical system that lays the foundations for navigation, from cell phones and ships to commercial airlines. But then the U.S. government shut down, placing the model’s official release on hold, as Nature News first reported earlier this year.
Now, the wait for a new north is over. The World Magnetic Model update was officially released in early February 2019, and magnetic north can again be precisely located for people around the world.
For the full article click here.
