What will happen when the Earth’s poles swap?

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Polar Opposite No one knows why the Earth's magnetic North and South poles swap. But polar reversals have happened hundreds of times over the history of the Earth. John Turk emailed [email protected] to ask, “when is the next pole swap due and what will happen to us?” Featuring Prof Lucie Green from Mullard Space Science Laboratory and Dr Phil Livermore from the University of Leeds. Plus, astronaut Terry Virts, author of The View from Above, describes his experiences of a strange magnetic glitch in the earth's magnetic field, known as The Bermuda Triangle of Space.

The World That Turns "Why does the Earth spin?" asks Joe Wills from Accra in Ghana. Hannah quizzes cosmologist Andrew Pontzen about the birth of the Solar System. BBC weatherman John Hammond describes the curious things that would happen if the Earth spun the opposite way. Send your questions to: [email protected]

Picture: The Earth reflecting light from the sun whilst aboard the International Space Station, Credit: Alexander Gerst / ESA via Getty Images

Producer: Michelle Martin

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Welcome to the Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry.
0:39.0	I'm Dr. Hannah Fry.
0:40.0	And I'm Dr. Adam Rutherford and we are here to solve your mysteries using the power of science.
0:45.8	Your mysteries being the operative word there.
0:48.3	You send us in your questions to curious cases at BBC.coate UK and we endeavor to investigate them.
0:54.6	Exactly now today we have two planetary problems first of all the curious case of
0:59.8	the polar opposite what will happen when the Earth's poles reverse?
1:04.4	Ah, not if, but when. Because if you look back through geological records, this is something
1:09.5	that has happened several times in the past. North becoming South becoming North
1:14.3	Magnetically speaking not geographically. And as ever we talk to experts we have a solar
1:20.0	scientist we have a geologist and a real life astronaut on this show. So we're
1:26.2	trying to find out when it will happen and will it be the apocalypse.
1:29.8	On with the show. We are polls apart today on curious cases.
1:38.0	We are polls apart today on curious cases.
1:41.0	Yes, the following topic was brought to our attention by three listeners, one of whom was John Turk who sent us in this question to curious cases at BBC.co.
1:48.7	What would happen if the polarity of the earth reversed?
	...

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