The earth may spin in another direction?
 

I heard that every so million (or billion) years the earth changes the way it spins into the other direction. It stays on the same orbit but rotates in the other direction.

Is this true? What is it called also in the process of changing its rotation would that not mean that it would have to slow down. Considering how fast we are going the earth slowing down even a bit would send us all flying wouldnt it?

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

I don't know about gravitational spin changing, but the poles do switch on a fairly regular basis (and we're apparently overdue by about 10 000 years). Could cause a slight problem, seeing as the poles are part of the process of generating the atmosphere :disturbd:

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Do you mean a pole reversal?

This is when the North and South pole get 'reversed'. I haven't heard of the spin direction changing. There's plenty of doom scenarios/speculation about an impending pole reversal on the web btw.

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

could this be an end to some of the UK immigration problems people keep going on about?

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

:D

Nah, It was certainly that the earth would rotate in another direction. Although the people who told me could have been thinking of pole reversal.

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Yeah, but only in so far as there'll be no-one left to worry about it ;)

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Or maybe 3rd world countrys will be having immigration problems as all us unwashed brits try to get in and steal their benefits :disturbd:

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Stuff the benefits - if the poles reversed and the atmosphere disappeared, it'd be the factor 50 I'd be after :D :disturbd:

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Isn't it something to do with the spin of the earths molten core? iirc, that changes direction and flips the magnetic field around..........

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

I do believe that you may have cracked it there, Mr Rod :)

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

I read that the world is going to end on 25th May any way so no need to worry really :)

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

It'd better not - I've got the 26th booked off as holiday :disturbd:

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Screw your holiday. We've got a World Cup coming up :Yikes:

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

That is one thing I wont miss if the world ends :D

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Oi! I'm planning on spending the day working out where I'm going to get drunk while the matches are on :D

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

I can't find any reference to the direction of the Earth's rotation changing, but loads on the theory about pole reversal.

Thinking about it, the Earth is actually slowing down, due to the tidal interaction with the moon, which is itself slowly receding

However, the slow down amounts to days getting longer by 1 second, every 67,000 years, or so, but the moon is getting further away from Earth by less than 2 inches a year, so the effect will, presumably, attenuate.

http://www.physlink.com/Education/askExperts/ae201.cfm

Going by that, it will be a very, very long time before the Earth stops spinning - and no evidence for any mechanism that would cause it to start turning in the opposite direction.

Seeing as pole reversal will be extremely difficult to survive & is likely to happen sooner, I think spin reversal is the least of our worries. ;)

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Bluddy hell, you're leaving it late! :dozey:

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

just looked up a bit more info & found this

http://ask.yahoo.com/20020411.html

- the point about the atmosphere was interesting, although they didn't speculate on how something as large as the Earth could go from over a thousand miles an hour to zero, in a short space of time ;)

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Oooh, an atmospehrical scrub, sounds like a new line in heath and beauty on the cards, I haven't dug dep into this yet ( just woke up ) but where do they get all the evidence of 'pole switching' from, whats it based on :shrug:

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Well, I have got to find pubs that I can take Baby Nug in - it's not like he's told me if he's gonna want lager or bitter yet ;)

---------- Post added at 13:08 ---------- Previous post was at 13:05 ----------

Maybe Iceland's really just a big hatch that they keep the parachute in :D

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

It's based on direct observation of the undersea floor of the atlantic ocean which is being continually formed at a point near the middle of the ocean......at the mid atlantic ridge.

---------- Post added at 13:26 ---------- Previous post was at 13:22 ----------

Magnetic striping and polar reversals
Beginning in the 1950s, scientists, using magnetic instruments (magnetometers) adapted from airborne devices developed during World War II to detect submarines, began recognizing odd magnetic variations across the ocean floor. This finding, though unexpected, was not entirely surprising because it was known that basalt -- the iron-rich, volcanic rock making up the ocean floor-- contains a strongly magnetic mineral (magnetite) and can locally distort compass readings. This distortion was recognized by Icelandic mariners as early as the late 18th century. More important, because the presence of magnetite gives the basalt measurable magnetic properties, these newly discovered magnetic variations provided another means to study the deep ocean floor.
A theoretical model of the formation of magnetic striping. New oceanic crust forming continuously at the crest of the mid-ocean ridge cools and becomes increasingly older as it moves away from the ridge crest with seafloor spreading (see text): a. the spreading ridge about 5 million years ago; b. about 2 to 3 million years ago; and c. present-day.
Early in the 20th century, paleomagnetists (those who study the Earth's ancient magnetic field) -- such as Bernard Brunhes in France (in 1906) and Motonari Matuyama in Japan (in the 1920s) -- recognized that rocks generally belong to two groups according to their magnetic properties. One group has so-called normal polarity, characterized by the magnetic minerals in the rock having the same polarity as that of the Earth's present magnetic field. This would result in the north end of the rock's "compass needle" pointing toward magnetic north. The other group, however, has reversed polarity, indicated by a polarity alignment opposite to that of the Earth's present magnetic field. In this case, the north end of the rock's compass needle would point south. How could this be? This answer lies in the magnetite in volcanic rock. Grains of magnetite -- behaving like little magnets -- can align themselves with the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field. When magma (molten rock containing minerals and gases) cools to form solid volcanic rock, the alignment of the magnetite grains is "locked in," recording the Earth's magnetic orientation or polarity (normal or reversed) at the time of cooling.
link

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

:LOL: atmospheric exfoliation - bit like biking in a hail storm ;)

The evidence is in the magnetic domains in Lava, apparently

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal

but there is still some discussion about what actually 'causes' it ...

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

There seems to some contradictory information on the subject.

quote:
They've also learned what happens during a magnetic flip. Reversals take a few thousand years to complete, and during that time--contrary to popular belief--the magnetic field does not vanish. "It just gets more complicated," says Glatzmaier. Magnetic lines of force near Earth's surface become twisted and tangled, and magnetic poles pop up in unaccustomed places. A south magnetic pole might emerge over Africa, for instance, or a north pole over Tahiti. Weird. But it's still a planetary magnetic field, and it still protects us from space radiation and solar storms.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...neticfield.htm

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Tell you what, we'll leave you outside to check it - we'll all be in the boozer ;)



































Obviously, I mean the boozer in that bunker 7 miles down :D

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Is it this pub??
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...re/3502105.stm

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

:rofl:

Well, it wasn't going to be, but if they've already got it ready :D

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Ahhh more doom and gloom.

It's all good though eh !

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Ah I quite liked the idea of the spin reversal.Like a million theme parks rides all at once.:D

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Yeah! I was kinda disappointed it wasnt true. I had visions of everyone suddenly being thrown in one direction at the same time :disturbd:

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

Feeling a bit sick after all that talk.

Can we go back to when the world was flat and we didn't have to concern ourselves with such fears?

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

but if the earth was flat and it reversed we would all fall off

Re: The earth may spin in another direction?
 

It's a chance we'll have to take :dozey: