What will happen when the north and south poles switch over? I hear this is overdue but there is not much information

Question: What will happen when the north and south poles switch over? I hear this is overdue but there is not much information on what actually happens.

Asked by lamoramaks to Paul, Mark on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
- Paul Roche answered on 24 Jun 2010:
  
  This certainly has happened quite a few times over millions of years, and seems to be a natural process of the Earth (and probably other planets as well). The Sun also flips it’s magnetic poles over. We’re still not really sure what causes this, but
  
  The last reversal was ~780,000 years ago, so we are sort of overdue one really – but they are not regularly spaced, they seem to be quite random, so we cannot predict when the next one will be.
  
  As to what will happen, well it will mess up navigation systems (compasses etc.) and may have other effects that we can’t predict yet, as we don’t know how long it takes (it could be hours, days or years – it might flip over gradually, with the poles sliding around the Earth, or it might flip rapidly…).
- Mark Roberts answered on 24 Jun 2010:
  
  Well it has been a short while since it last happened about 780,000 yrs ago and it has flipped in the past prior to that
  
  The reason it does is because the earth is a magnet based on electricity – this flows in the molten iron core inside the planet as it’s a molten liquid it can move and change, which we see in magnetic drift and when it drastically changes in a switch. Because it’s random fluid flow we currently have no way to predict when or indeed if it will happen.
  
  What will happen – well it will mess up our compasses! but also lots of animals eg pidgeons and even some bacteria use the magnetic field for navigation so it will have a big impact on them and their ecosystems.
  
  It might not even happen quickly / also flip quite a bit before settling so that will probably cause more problems for the animals that use the magnetic field for navigation
  
  If you want to know more about it try:
  http://www.physics.org/facts/frog-magnetic-field.asp
  
  Hope that sort of answers your qu!

Question: What will happen when the north and south poles switch over? I hear this is overdue but there is not much information on what actually happens.

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