A rare geological event occurs every 300,000 years or so: the Earth’s magnetic poles flip. The magnetic poles are the two ...

Correspondingly, off the coast of Antarctica, at the south magnetic dip pole, a freely orienting compass needle would point straight up. Earth’s magnetic field changes over time.

Detailed magnetic measurements of the dip poles go all the way back to 1590. But the first direct observation of the north dip pole was not made until 1831.

Earth’s magnetic north is not static. Like an anchorless buoy pushed by ocean waves, the magnetic field is constantly on the move as liquid iron sloshes around in the planet’s outer core.

I HAVE made the following determinations of the magnetic dip by aid of one of Dover's excellent Kew-pattern dip-circles (No. 67). As I am observing on a pier in the open air I am not able to ...

They did, however, lose their sense of magnetic dip (the angle the Earth’s field makes with the ground). Dip indicates latitude, another important part of navigation.

This article was originally published with the title “ Dip of the Magnetic Needle ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 24 (February 1858), p. 185 doi:10.1038 ...

Check your compass again - Earth’s north magnetic pole is moving toward Siberia. Skip to main content Spokane, Washington Est. May 19, 1883 ... also known as the magnetic dip pole.