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magnetic pole, the two nearly opposite ends of the planet where the earth's magnetic intensity is the greatest, as the north and south magnetic poles. For the magnetic north, it is the direction from any point on the earth's surface linking the horizontal component of the magnetic lines of force with the observer and north magnetic pole; it is similar for magnetic south. Throughout geological time the locality of either magnetic pole has varied considerably (see paleomagnetism). The north magnetic pole, first located (1831) by English explorer Sir James C. Ross, is now about 78°N and 104°W in the Queen Elizabeth Islands of northern Canada. The south magnetic pole, reached (1909) by English geologists Sir T. W. E. David and Sir Douglas Mawson, is now about 66°S and 139°E on the AdElie Coast of Antarctica. The magnetic poles follow circular paths with diameters of about 100 miles (160 km). Recent studies of paleomagnetism indicate that the earth's magnetic field has reversed its polarity many times in the geologic past. The best hypothesis to date for the origin of terrestrial magnetism is the self-exciting dynamo theory, where the earth's magnetic field is generated by the interaction of motion and electrical currents in the earth's liquid outer core.
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