When north heads south

François Pétrélis (1) , Jean-Pierre Valet (2) , Jean Besse (2)

1 ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris
2 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

The polarity of the Earth's magnetic field appears to have flipped randomly throughout history, with visual representations of these changes looking like product barcodes. But François Pétrélis, Jean-Pierre Valet and Jean Besse have a new insight that could explain a pattern in the rate of reversals.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

François Pétrélis, Jean-Pierre Valet, Jean Besse. When north heads south. Physics World, 2012, 25, pp.51-55. ⟨10.1088/2058-7058/25/03/38⟩. ⟨insu-03583360⟩