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Upheaval and extinctions linked to magnetic reversal 42,000 years ago - EarthSky
Feb 20, 2021 1 min, 21 secs
A magnetic reversal 42,000 years ago helped bring about earthly extinctions, scientists said, accompanied by changes in the sky including electrical storms and widespread auroras.

A new international study suggests that a magnetic field reversal – combined with changing solar winds – contributed to an environmental crisis and mass extinctions 42,000 years ago.

Earth’s magnetic field dropped to only 0 to 6% strength during the Adams Event.

As the magnetic reversal of 42,000 years ago helped bring about earthly extinctions, these scientists said, the skies would have been lit by widespread auroras.

Its rings spanned some 1,700 years and captured the magnetic reversal.

This magnetic reversal was brief; it was what scientists called an excursion: not a lasting change in Earth’s magnetic field, but just a temporary change.

The magnetic poles wander and wobble and, occasionally, swap places entirely, as appears to have happened temporarily 41,000 to 42,000 years ago.

This ancient kauri log lived during the Adams Event.

Using the ancient trees we could measure and date the spike in atmospheric radiocarbon levels caused by the collapse of Earth’s magnetic field.

So the Laschamp Event refers to the magnetic pole reversal itself.

The new term used by scientists in 2021 – the Adams Event – refers more broadly to effects on Earth during that time.

Some evidence suggests a change in the orientation of Earth’s magnetic field is already underway.

And in the last 170 years, the Earth’s magnetic field has weakened by about 9%.

A magnetic pole reversal or extreme change in sun activity would be unprecedented climate-change accelerants.

Bottom line: Radiocarbon dating in kauri trees helped researchers tie the magnetic field reversal 42,000 years ago to environmental calamities and extinction events

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