Reversals of Earth's Magnetic Field During the Past 5 Million Years
Image courtesy USGS. |
This image shows the reversals of Earth's magnetic field over the past 5 million years. The scale along the left is time, going backward from the present as you move down the page, in millions of years before the present day. Chrons are long periods during which the magnetic field remained oriented in one direction for most of the duration of the chron. The current chron, called the "Brunhes normal", began 780,000 years ago. The immediate prior chron was the "Matuyama reverse". Periods during which Earth's magnetic polarity was "normal" (that is, the same as it is now) are shown in black, whereas periods of reversed polarity are shown in white. Most chrons are interrupted by shorter periods, called subchrons, during which the field flips to the opposite of the dominant orientation during the longer parent chron.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
Learn about Earth and space science, and have fun while doing it! The
games section of our
online store includes a
climate change card game and the
Traveling Nitrogen game!
You might also be interested in:
The force of magnetism causes material to point along the direction the magnetic force points. As shown in the diagram to the left, the force of magnetism is illustrated by lines, which represent the force.
...more
The Earth has a magnetic field with north and south poles. The Earth's magnetic field reaches 36,000 miles into space. The magnetic field of the Earth is surrounded in a region called the magnetosphere.
...more
The belts of trapped radiation above the Earth's atmosphere, but within the magnetosphere, were first detected by James Van Allen in 1958. Therefore these belts are also known as Van Allen Belts. When
...more
Earth has a magnetic field. If you imagine a gigantic bar magnet inside of Earth, you'll have a pretty good idea what Earth's magnetic field is shaped like. Of course, Earth DOESN'T have a giant bar magnet
...more
Earth has a magnetic field with a north pole and a south pole. Earth's magnetic field is pretty much (but not exactly) like the magnetic field around a bar magnet. Earth's North Magnetic Pole (NMP) is
...more
Altocumulus clouds are part of the Middle Cloud group (2000-7000m up). They are grayish-white with one part of the cloud darker than the other. Altocumulus clouds usually form in groups and are about
...more
Altostratus belong to the Middle Cloud group (2000-7000m up). An altostratus cloud usually covers the whole sky and has a gray or blue-gray appearance. The sun or moon may shine through an altostratus
...more
