Importance Of Earth's Magnetic Field

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The Magnetic Field Earth’s magnetic field protects us and allows us to have life on earth. Without the magnetic field, Earth would be just like Mars and Venus, dried up and no life. Our planet's core is made up of molten iron and this creates a huge field that protects Earth from space particles and radiation, which is known as solar wind. If we did not have the magnetic field, the solar winds from space would remove our ozone layer, which protects Earth from the harmful ultraviolet radiation. Also, Earth’s magnetic field is the reason a compass needle always points toward the North magnetic pole (Importance of Earth’s Magnetic Field). Our planet has seven major plates on earth that are located all over the world. Those seven include the…show more content…
In 1906, Brunhes was studying some early rock, when he came across his big discovery! In some of the rocks he was studying. Brunhes found, “that some layers had minerals in which the remnant magnetism, which was the exact opposite orientation as todays magnetic field. From this he concluded that the Earth’s magnetic field has reversed from time to time” (Paleomagnetism and Continental Drift). The study of the sea floor spreading, while using paleomagnetism has been successful as well. Mid-ocean ridges are places in the ocean where two plates meet and have any continent that may be around them. These plates are being pushed away from each other by currents in the asthenosphere and this makes the magma from the asthenosphere to push up from below the rift to fill in the empty space, which was created by the spreading and this creates new ocean floor (Usmar and…show more content…
These geologists include Keith Runcorn, Ted Irving, and many others who discovered rocks that were different ages were found in the same area. These rocks have a fairly different magnetic pole position and this made them think that Earth’s magnetic field had moved from its original position over time. The paleomagnetic data makes a curve called the polar wandering path, like the one in the picture above. Paleomagnetic data is about the movement of the continents and not about the magnetic poles. A long time ago, the European continent used to be south of the equator and had rocks that were in upward-pointing position. As of today, those European rocks are now in downward position and researches are saying that the the North pole used to be by the South Pacific and over millions of years, it moved north. The paleomagnetic data shows that the continents have moved over a great period of time and that all these continents used to be one

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