Had compass-toting Boy Scouts existed around fifteen million years ago, they may have had a fun time making it through the forest. New geological research questions if the Earth's magnetic field changed, at that time, at the remarkable pace of one degree per week, leading to a particularly fast magnetic pole flip. In a paper to appear in Geophysical Research Letters, Scott Bogue and Jonathan Glen suggest that the Earth's magnetic field changed 53 degrees in one year's time, based on their study of preserved lava flows in Nevada. As the solid rock formed from cooling liquid lava, it preserved a pattern corresponding to the "super-fast" geomagnetic field reversal, the researchers believe. This is the second time that Bogue has controversially argued for the existence of such speedy flips, finding hints of a faster one in 1995.
In 1995 an ancient lava flow with an unusual magnetic pattern was discovered ...
