Tag Archives: flipped magnetic poles

Striped oceans and drifting continents

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Wegener's continent reconstruction for the Carboniferous Period, 300 million years ago

Continental Drift was the leading hypothesis for continental aggregation, prior to plate tectonics

German meteorologist Alfred Wegener, in a fit of creativity, presented his ideas about drifting continents to a 1912 geological meeting in Frankfurt.  He published an expanded version of his theory in 1915 – The Origin of the Continents and Oceans, to muted applause and resounding derision.  I found this quote by Russian contemporary, Vladimir Beloussov, in Arthur Holmes’ Principles of Geology wherein Beloussov quips in less than glowing terms of the …total vacuousness and sterility of the hypothesis.  The tenor of this remark was probably typical of Wegener’s detractors.  In fact, even today, certain scientific hypotheses and theories suffer the slings and arrows of equally vacuous remarks from the scientifically challenged.  As it turned out, Wegener’s revolutionary ideas were the vital spark that gave birth to modern Plate Tectonics. Continue reading

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When North becomes South; The flip-side of earth’s magnetic field

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The aurora seen from the International Space Station

Earth’s magnetic field is on the move – so too is magnetic North!

Constancy in life is a comforting, if not fleeting thought, shattered by riddles, unknowns, and sometimes brutal realities.  Even the supposed constant that your compass always points north has an unsettling caveat; sometimes it may point south. Continue reading

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