Noah and the Shifting Magnetic Poles

By Douglas V. Gibbs

As a child the story of Noah's Ark intrigued me. How could it have never rained before on Earth, as the story explains, and then suddenly for forty days and nights rain non-stop until the entire world was submerged, save for Noah, his family, and an ark full of animals?

During my late pre-teen years I came across a paper written by a Christian scholar who had investigated the event using science. As I read the article, I was eased by the fact that the writer was asking the same questions that I was asking. In his research, I read, the author of the piece felt that he had come across evidence that showed that the magnetic poles had shifted, changing Earth from a tropical planet that would hold the water in the air, and be more accommodating to dinosaurs, to one with two distinct polar regions that glaciated under extremely cold temperatures. The result of such a shift would be to quite literally knock all of the water out of the air, a process that could take quite possibly forty days and forty nights. Such a deluge of rain would flood the planet, until the poles had the opportunity to draw in some of the water through freezing, and in other places the waters naturally receded into what is now a normal topography.

I may not have all of the wording exactly right, for one must remember that I read this nearly thirty-five years ago, but that was the basic gist of it all.

The concept seemed reasonable to me at that time, so I decided to consider it as one possibility. However, when I shared my new knowledge with those around me, the majority of the folks scoffed at such a possibility - not because they doubted God's ability to do what He wanted, but because they felt the theory of shifting poles was something more in line with science fiction, than reality.

As the years passed, I hung on to the theory of shifting poles as a possibility in explaining Noah's Ark. And until now, I had nothing to assist me with the theory, other than that old paper I read, and my own personal faith in the possibility.

Now, according to scientists, the poles are indeed shifting, and the results of such a phenomenon could be very interesting.

The shifting of the poles seems to be common knowledge nowadays, as opposed to when I was talking about the possibility in the seventies. Magnetic north is shifting its position at about 40 miles per year, racing from the Arctic Ocean near Canada, to Russia. The challenge, however, aside from influencing the weather, is that the shifting magnetic pole is also influencing compass headings. This means that people who use compasses need to be aware of the shift, and make the appropriate adjustments. If they don't make the adjustments, they could wind up a few miles off course to their destinations.

The shift of the magnetic poles has little impact on the average person and presents no danger to the Earth overall, but it is costing the aviation and marine industries millions of dollars to upgrade navigational systems and charts.

The reason for the shift, according to scientists, is because the Earth's core of hot liquid iron is constantly moving. That motion, combined with forces such as the Earth's rotation, dictate the position of magnetic north, not to be confused with geographic north, or the North Pole.

Over the last hundred years the constant shift has changed from creeping as slow as nine miles per year in the early 1900s to more than 35 miles per year in the 2000s.

Currently, the shift creates about a one-degree difference in compass direction every five years.

GPS navigation draws on satellites, and has no reliance on magnetic north.

We aren't the only creatures on this planet affected by the magnetic north. Birds that fly south for the winter and some sea turtles that migrate from Africa to South America must learn to adjust their senses so they end up migrating in the right direction.

I don't know, however, if these changes will knock water out of the air, or turn us into a tropical planet once again, but the possibility of drastic changes seems to be one worth considering.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Pilots, boaters adjust to shift in magnetic north - Sun Sentinel