The geographic North Pole remains in a fixed location at the top of Earth’s rotational axis, but the magnetic pole has moved eastward away from Canada towards Siberia, according to the latest map produced by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the British Geological Survey (BGS). Updated every five years, the world magnetic model is used to recalibrate navigation systems on ships and planes—GPS systems and cell phones are updated automatically. The vertically aligned North and South magnetic poles are the points from which the induction lines of the Earth’s magnetic field begin and converge. Their positions vary depending on the movement of iron and nickel inside the Earth. “Magnetic north has been moving slowly around Canada since the 1500s, but in the past 20 years, it accelerated towards Siberia, increasing in speed every year until about five years ago, when it suddenly decelerated from 50 to 35 kilometers per year, which is the biggest deceleration in speed we’ve ever seen,” William Brown of the BGS told ScienceAlert (BGS News and NOAA, December 17; ScienceAlert, December 20).
