The magnetic north pole of Earth has now crossed the prime meridian, which has been moving faster than projected in recent years.

Over the last two decades, magnetic north has been lurching away from its prior home in the Canadian Arctic and toward Siberia at a rate of around 34 miles (55 kilometers) each year. The National Centers for Environmental Information and the British Geological Survey’s current model of the Earth’s magnetic field indicates that this movement will continue, although at a slower rate of 25 miles (40 km) each year.

This model is used to calibrate GPS and other navigation measurements.

The magnetic field of Earth is produced by the churning of the planet’s iron outer core, which forms a complex, but mostly north-south magnetic field. For reasons not entirely understood but related to the planet’s interior dynamics, the magnetic field is currently undergoing a period of weakening. As a result, magnetic north is moving.

According to the NCEI, magnetic north was positioned at 86.54 N 170.88 E in the Arctic Ocean in February 2019. (Magnetic south similarly does not line up with geographic south; it was at at 64.13 S 136.02 E off the coast of Antarctica as of February 2019.)

The magnetic field of the Earth shields us from the solar wind by deflecting charged particles. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Every five years, scientists release a new version of the World Magnetic Model, so the 2020 upgrade was expected. However, due to the rapid movement of magnetic north in 2019, they were obliged to deliver an update ahead of schedule. The 2020 model depicts a “Blackout Zone” near magnetic north, when compasses become unreliable and begin to fail due to the proximity to true north. According to Newsweek, the new maps also show magnetic north east of the prime meridian, a limit the pole passed in 2019. The prime meridian, often known as the Greenwich meridian, is the meridian that was established in 1884 as the official marker of zero degrees, zero minutes, and zero seconds; it goes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.

It is now unclear if Earth’s magnetic poles will flip north and south, or whether the magnetic field will soon increase again. Both events have happened in Earth’s history without any notable effect on biology. Modern navigation systems, on the other hand, rely on magnetic north and will need to be recalibrated as the poles continue to drift. Airports, for example, have already had to rename several of their runways, which were formerly named based on compass directions.