The Earth in a moment of "reversal"

(NLĐO) - The moment when the Earth's North and South Poles swapped places has been recreated by European scientists in a chilling audio recording.

In a clip recently released by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Earth's magnetic poles slowly switch places amidst a series of jarring sounds resembling the continuous clashing of rocks, wood, and metal.

According to Science Alert, a research team from the Technical University of Denmark and the German Earth Science Research Center used data from ESA's Swarm satellite to simulate the moment of Earth's magnetic pole reversal and converted that data into sound.

The moment Earth's magnetic poles reversed is "time-lapsed" in a clip created by European scientists - Clip: ESA

Created by swirling liquid metals in the planet's core, Earth's magnetic field can extend tens to hundreds of thousands of kilometers into space.

It forms what is called the magnetosphere, protecting us by deflecting energetic solar particles, preventing them from destroying the atmosphere.

Currently, the magnetic field lines form closed loops running from south to north on the planet's surface, and then from north to south deep inside.

However, these magnetic field lines occasionally reverse polarity randomly. This is the phenomenon of magnetic pole reversal, which has occurred many times in the planet's history.

If this were to happen again today, our compass needle pointing north would be pointing to the South Pole.

The Earth's magnetic field becomes chaotic when the magnetic poles reverse - Graphic image: NASA

The last magnetic pole reversal event occurred approximately 41,000 years ago, leaving its mark in the Laschamps lava flow in France, hence it is also known as the Laschamps event.

At that point, the magnetic field would weaken to only 5% of its current strength, allowing a large amount of cosmic rays to enter Earth's atmosphere.

According to a study published earlier this year, ice and sea sediments preserve isotopic signatures indicating unusually high cosmic ray bombardment during this period, for example, the amount of beryllium-10 doubled during the Laschamps event.

These altered atoms are formed when cosmic rays react with our atmosphere, ionizing the air and burning up the ozone layer.

This is believed to have caused global climate change, closely linked to the extinction of large animals in Australia as well as changes in the use of caves by prehistoric humans.

Geophysicist Sanja Panovska from the German Research Centre for Earth Sciences said that understanding these extreme events is crucial for predicting their likelihood of recurrence and their potential impact on the world today.

It took 250 years for the Laschamps reversal to occur, and the anomalies persisted for about 440 years before stabilizing again.

In the most optimistic scenario, the Earth's magnetic field could retain about 25% of its current level during the next magnetic pole reversal.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/clip-rung-minh-tu-esa-trai-dat-trong-khoanh-khac-dao-nguoc-196241020085327534.htm