British scientists have recently revealed that Earth's magnetic north pole is drifting towards Russia at an accelerated speed and is now closer to Siberia than it was five years ago. According to CNN, experts have been tracking the Earth's magnetic north pole for centuries using the World Magnetic Model. Developed by the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this model notes the established position of the magnetic north and predicts future drift based on the trajectory of the past few years. After every five years, researchers revise the WMM by resetting the official position of magnetic north and introducing new predictions.
In December, the team released two models, revealing that the pole is now closer to Siberia than it was five years ago and is continuing to drift toward Russia.
Notably, unlike the geographical North Pole, the magnetic north pole of the planet is decided by Earth's magnetic field, which is constantly moving and never static. Scientists noted that over the past few years, the movement of the magnetic field has been unprecedented. Sometimes it speeds up, other times it slows rapidly. However, scientists cannot definitively explain the reason behind the unusual behaviour, CNN reported.
British explorer Sir James Clark Ross discovered the magnetic north pole in 1831 in northern Canada, approximately 1,609 kilometres south of the north pole. But since then, the magnetic north has drifted away from Canada and toward Russia, experts said. According to them, the magnetic pole moved 400 kilometres northwest from its 1831 position. In 1948, it reached Prince Wales Island, and by 2000 it had departed the Canadian shore.
"It has typically moved about 10 km (6.2 miles) per year or less over the last 400 years," Dr William Brown, a geophysicist and geomagnetism researcher with the British Geological Survey, said, per CNN.
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However, scientists noted that the latest WMM update follows a period of highly unusual activity for the magnetic north pole. They said that in 1990 the drift accelerated, increasing from 15 kilometres per year to 55 kilometres per year. And around 2015, the drift slowed to about 35 kilometres per year. By 2019, the fluctuations had deviated so far from the prior model that scientists updated the WMM a year early.
Now, scientists expect that the drift toward Russia will continue to slow, however, they say that there is some uncertainty about how long the slowdown will persist and if it will continue at its current pace.
"It could change (its) rate, or even speed up again. We will continue to monitor the field and to assess the performance of the WMM, but we do not anticipate needing to release a new model before the planned update in 2030," said Dr Brown.
