Wednesday, October 15, 2014

ANNALS OF BELATED DISCOVERY : THE EAST POLE

The Age of Discovery endures:
A map of palaeomagnetic field drift published by Italian and American researchers  in   Geophysical Journal International ,  based  on  a continuous sequence  of   lacustrine  sediments  outcropping in  the Apennines  reveals that in the 787th millennium BC, Earth boasted an East Magnetic Pole near  Latitude 0  Logitude 0 in the Bight of Benin.

It follows that for as long as it took for the magnetsphere's focal point to drift across the Equator, tropical nights were brightened by the light of the Aurora Orientalis shining over the Prime Meridian:


 On the far side of the world in the same brief epoch, Homo erectus could marvel at the Aurora Occidentalis illuminating the Pacific around the West Magnetic Pole in the waters north of Tuvalu.
 Now that Sagnotti et al.'s 

Extremely rapid directional change during Matuyama-Brunhes geomagnetic polarity reversal

has rewritten the history of polar discovery at right angles to Perry & Amundsen, the RGS and National Geograpic can offer a prize for the first expedition to gather direct evidence of East and West Polar palaeomagnetism from the seabed around 0o0o  and  0o, 180o.


Once the great drill ship, wind surfer & submarine race from pole to pole is over, a new era of quadrupole modeling can begin!