Earth’s Magnetic Field Through a Bird’s Eyes—Part II
“An animal that has to migrate over great distances needs to have both a compass and a map,” said Cordula Mora, a biologist who recently completed her postdoctoral research at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
With the latest studies regarding birds and Earth’s magnetic field, it has had a popular vote among scientists who said the study was “impressive and well done” but very much emphasized that more studies need to be done to get an overall picture closer to the truth. Because of the latest studies, Mora’s work actually suggests that birds could possibly be using magnetic crystals in their beaks, in order to sense the intensity of the magnetic field and to assist in finding information on their physical location (“Magnetic Beaks Help Birds Navigate, Study Says,” (Nov. 24, 2004).
But what will happen when Earth’s magnetic field begins to fade? What will the birds use for their navigational system then? It is already well known that the magnetic field is over 10 percent weaker than when it was “discovered” in 1845 when the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss began to study it. If this continues, the total magnetic field will weaken and eventually collapse, according to a 2004 article in National Geographic by John Roach, “Earth’s Magnetic Field is Fading.”
In the article, it says that scientists feel that the lessening of the magnetic field is of no cause to worry, even though without our planet’s magnetic field the Earth would be subject to an increase in cosmic radiation—knocking out power grids, scramble the communications systems on spacecraft, temporarily widen atmospheric ozone holes, and generate more aurora activity. In constant flux, birds are not the only ones to use the field for navigation, as turtles and bees use it in the same way, even though Peter Olson of the John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, feel that small fluctuations lead to nothing and large ones lead to magnetic reversals.
Our scientists today, with up-to-date high technology, has found out that quite possibly each newly generated field has the ability to line up, in the direction of the magnet field that is present today. Occasionally, an unknown force will cause the new magnetic field to head in an opposite direction, with the process leading to a net weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field present now.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Public Relations, Technical Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
