…but the South Pole wasn't his home. He was a polar bear, and polar bears live in the North Pole.
Which is why he said goodbye and traveled 12,430 miles all the way back to the North Pole, where he belonged.
written by Jean Willis
illustrated by Peter Jarvis
Nosy Crow/Candlewick, 2015
accessed on YouTube 4/21/25
Mom and Dad took us on day trips to interesting nearby places instead of long family vacations. Dad was an expert map reader. Mom was, too. My brother picked up the skill easily, but my sister got carsick so was excused. And I, well, left and right, directions like NSEW were (are) confusing.
Dad kidded me saying I could get lost backing out of the driveway. He was right, then. I always thought spatial relations was not my best thing. I’m lots better now, so maybe I just lived down to his expectations.
Now, take the North Pole. Everyone knows the magnetic North Pole is different from the geographic North Pole. But I just learned that even though the geographic North Pole is stationary (even as Earth orbits and rotates), the magnetic North Pole strays.
Magnetic poles (North and South) are located at the precise spot where the geomagnetic field is exactly perpendicular to the surface of the Earth. An imaginary line to the center of Earth’s core is called a dip pole.
The imaginary line connecting the magnetic North and South Poles is not necessarily parallel to the imaginary one connecting the geographic Poles. Currently, the axis of the dip pole is inclined 9.32° compared to the rotational axis. This differential (that changes over time) only matters if a reversal occurs. That is unlikely and perhaps the topic for another day.
But where the Magnetic North Pole IS does matter. Back to that in a few minutes.
In 1831, James Clark Ross (1800 - 1862), a British Naval Officer, located the Magnetic North Pole in the Canadian Arctic. It has been drifting slowly across the Arctic Plain and is now nearing Russia.
You might wonder, as I did, Why does it move? Well, it’s complicated. Earth’s magnetic field is caused by Earth’s outer core. Unlike the solid inner core, the outer core is liquid. It is the movement of iron, nickel, sulfur, and oxygen sloshing around the huge solid core made of iron and nickel that creates the magnetic field. Think of opposite ends of a magnet. Opposites attract while like repels like.
Since the magnetic field is constantly changing, so are the magnetic Poles. From 1831, when Ross first located it, to the 1990s, magnetic North drifted about 9 miles (15 km) per year. However, since the 1990s, it has been moving faster, lots faster.
Using satellite measurements, scientists think they have figured out why. Information from the journal Nature Geoscience says “tussling magnetic blobs” in Earth’s outer core cause the ruckus. One blob is under Canada, and one is under Siberia. As they attract and repel each other, the magnetic field shifts. Here's an illustration from EarthSky.org.
Within the last 20 years, Magnetic North has been clocked between 30 and 50 miles per year, galloping South, toward Siberia.
But about five years ago, movement slowed to between 30 and 22 miles (50 to 35 km) per year. EarthSky.org says, [it’s the] “biggest deceleration in speed we've ever seen.”
GPS (Global Positioning System) Navigation depends on the accuracy of Earth’s magnetic field. Think of a magnet and a compass. Because Magnetic North is always moving, navigation is tricky.
Experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meet with their British counterparts every five years to develop a more accurate World Magnetic Model (WMM). While emergency updates are done as necessary, those five years may be too long to wait.
While we still watch objects in the sky to tell where we are in space and how to get somewhere else, satellites (for the most part) have replaced “navigation by the stars.” NOAA's website tells us we depend on “[o]ver 30 GPS navigation satellites [that] are whizzing around the world, orbiting at an altitude of 12,000 miles, to help us find our way.
The new WMM has been available since January 2025, and mapping companies, shipping agencies, logistics firms, and governments are busy making updates.
Our smartphones depend on GPS, too, but those updates happen automatically.
Climate scientists have been studying the effects of the increasing levels of CO2 on climate change since at least 2012. According to an article in physics.org, “[w]hile CO2 causes heat to be trapped in the lower atmosphere, it actually cools the upper atmosphere.” Using computer simulations, the scientists found that changes in Earth’s magnetic field (in the upper atmosphere) cause changes in global temperatures, with the “strongest warming … located over Antarctica” and all those icebergs.
Today is Earth Day. Celebrate by planting a tree or two, our best allies to capture the carbon we are so wantonly inclined to spew into the air.
I just finished reading God of the Woods by Liz Moore. When 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar disappears from her family’s exclusive overnight camp, it feels like a replay of the disappearance of her older brother. Camp counselors, a complicated past, and family intrigue work against a female detective, trying to establish her credibility, to unravel the “twin” mysteries, only to discover they are not as similar as they first appear. It’s long, but worth your time!
Be curious! (and breathe deep)
Which is why he said goodbye and traveled 12,430 miles all the way back to the North Pole, where he belonged.
written by Jean Willis
illustrated by Peter Jarvis
Nosy Crow/Candlewick, 2015
accessed on YouTube 4/21/25
Mom and Dad took us on day trips to interesting nearby places instead of long family vacations. Dad was an expert map reader. Mom was, too. My brother picked up the skill easily, but my sister got carsick so was excused. And I, well, left and right, directions like NSEW were (are) confusing.
Dad kidded me saying I could get lost backing out of the driveway. He was right, then. I always thought spatial relations was not my best thing. I’m lots better now, so maybe I just lived down to his expectations.
Now, take the North Pole. Everyone knows the magnetic North Pole is different from the geographic North Pole. But I just learned that even though the geographic North Pole is stationary (even as Earth orbits and rotates), the magnetic North Pole strays.
Magnetic poles (North and South) are located at the precise spot where the geomagnetic field is exactly perpendicular to the surface of the Earth. An imaginary line to the center of Earth’s core is called a dip pole.
The imaginary line connecting the magnetic North and South Poles is not necessarily parallel to the imaginary one connecting the geographic Poles. Currently, the axis of the dip pole is inclined 9.32° compared to the rotational axis. This differential (that changes over time) only matters if a reversal occurs. That is unlikely and perhaps the topic for another day.
But where the Magnetic North Pole IS does matter. Back to that in a few minutes.
In 1831, James Clark Ross (1800 - 1862), a British Naval Officer, located the Magnetic North Pole in the Canadian Arctic. It has been drifting slowly across the Arctic Plain and is now nearing Russia.
You might wonder, as I did, Why does it move? Well, it’s complicated. Earth’s magnetic field is caused by Earth’s outer core. Unlike the solid inner core, the outer core is liquid. It is the movement of iron, nickel, sulfur, and oxygen sloshing around the huge solid core made of iron and nickel that creates the magnetic field. Think of opposite ends of a magnet. Opposites attract while like repels like.
Since the magnetic field is constantly changing, so are the magnetic Poles. From 1831, when Ross first located it, to the 1990s, magnetic North drifted about 9 miles (15 km) per year. However, since the 1990s, it has been moving faster, lots faster.
Using satellite measurements, scientists think they have figured out why. Information from the journal Nature Geoscience says “tussling magnetic blobs” in Earth’s outer core cause the ruckus. One blob is under Canada, and one is under Siberia. As they attract and repel each other, the magnetic field shifts. Here's an illustration from EarthSky.org.
Within the last 20 years, Magnetic North has been clocked between 30 and 50 miles per year, galloping South, toward Siberia.
But about five years ago, movement slowed to between 30 and 22 miles (50 to 35 km) per year. EarthSky.org says, [it’s the] “biggest deceleration in speed we've ever seen.”
GPS (Global Positioning System) Navigation depends on the accuracy of Earth’s magnetic field. Think of a magnet and a compass. Because Magnetic North is always moving, navigation is tricky.
Experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meet with their British counterparts every five years to develop a more accurate World Magnetic Model (WMM). While emergency updates are done as necessary, those five years may be too long to wait.
While we still watch objects in the sky to tell where we are in space and how to get somewhere else, satellites (for the most part) have replaced “navigation by the stars.” NOAA's website tells us we depend on “[o]ver 30 GPS navigation satellites [that] are whizzing around the world, orbiting at an altitude of 12,000 miles, to help us find our way.
The new WMM has been available since January 2025, and mapping companies, shipping agencies, logistics firms, and governments are busy making updates.
Our smartphones depend on GPS, too, but those updates happen automatically.
Climate scientists have been studying the effects of the increasing levels of CO2 on climate change since at least 2012. According to an article in physics.org, “[w]hile CO2 causes heat to be trapped in the lower atmosphere, it actually cools the upper atmosphere.” Using computer simulations, the scientists found that changes in Earth’s magnetic field (in the upper atmosphere) cause changes in global temperatures, with the “strongest warming … located over Antarctica” and all those icebergs.
Today is Earth Day. Celebrate by planting a tree or two, our best allies to capture the carbon we are so wantonly inclined to spew into the air.
I just finished reading God of the Woods by Liz Moore. When 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar disappears from her family’s exclusive overnight camp, it feels like a replay of the disappearance of her older brother. Camp counselors, a complicated past, and family intrigue work against a female detective, trying to establish her credibility, to unravel the “twin” mysteries, only to discover they are not as similar as they first appear. It’s long, but worth your time!
Be curious! (and breathe deep)
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