The magnetic North Pole is moving – and it could play havoc with your smartphone’s navigation function.
A team of American and British scientists have released the latest update to the World Magnetic Model (WWM).
This will officially move the magnetic North Pole closer to Siberia, from 1 January 2025.
Unlike ‘true north’, which is the direction that points directly towards the geographic North Pole, magnetic north is not a fixed point.
Instead, it aligns with Earth’s magnetic field – and is the direction that a compass needle points to.
Since 2019, the magnetic pole has already shifted about 110 miles (170km) at a rapid pace of 22 miles (35km) per year.
And with the Earth’s magnetic field changing in ways that are more erratic than ever, experts say it might not be long before the model needs to be updated again.
Dr William Brown, from the British Geological Survey, says: ‘The current behaviour of magnetic north is something that we have never observed before.’
Scientists have revealed that the magnetic North Pole has officially shifted southwards towards Siberia, potentially playing havoc with smartphones’ navigation systems
True North is the point on the planet where all lines of longitude converge at the Earth’s rotational axis, and never varies from its location at 90° North.
Magnetic North, on the other hand, is the point in the northern hemisphere where all of Earth’s magnetic field lines point directly into the planet’s centre.
This means the Magnetic North moves from year to year as the magnetic field changes.
Dr Brown told MailOnline: ‘The magnetic north pole according to WMM2025 will be at 85.76 degrees North, 139.27 degrees East on January 1st 2025.
‘We predict that by 2030 it will be at 84.72 degrees North, 126.07 degrees East.’
To make things even more complicated, Earth’s magnetic field isn’t regular like the field lines around a bar magnet.
Instead, geological features push and pull the magnetic field, creating large disturbances around structures like mountains.
This discrepancy creates problems when ships or aircraft try to navigate by the magnetic field since even small misalignments can lead to big errors.
Earth’s magnetic pole does not line up with true North, which can cause problems for devices that use the magnetic field to get their bearings
This image shows the latest update to the World Magnetic Model which is released every five years to calculate the difference between true north and magnetic north at every place on the planet
If you were flying the 8,500-km (5,280-mile) journey from South Africa to England, a deviation of just one degree would leave you 150 km (93 miles) off target.
To solve this issue, a group of agencies including the British Geological Survey and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration produce the WWM.
This is the most accurate model of the world’s magnetic field and contains predictions for how it will change over the coming five years.
This allows you calculate the difference between Magnetic North and True North, no matter where you are on the planet.
When you open a navigation app on your phone, the device will combine GPS data with a recording of the magnetic field at your location.
The navigation app will enter your position into the WWM to see what the field should look like at your location.
By comparing this with the measurements from your device, your smartphone is able to work out which direction you are facing.
Dr Brown says: ‘The WMM is officially released today, ensuring users can have the most up-to-date information so they can continue to navigate accurately for the next five years.’
Geological features also cause disturbances to the Earth’s magnetic field. On this map, you can see the large distance over the Appalachian Mountains. This makes a model of the field essential for navigation
Normally, the WWM is only released once every five years since this is how long the predictions typically remain accurate.
However, over the last few years, Earth’s magnetic field has been undergoing some extremely dramatic changes.
Dr Brown says: ‘Magnetic north has been moving slowly around Canada since the 1500s but, in the past 20 years, it accelerated towards Siberia, increasing in speed every year until about five years ago, when it suddenly decelerated from 50 to 35 km per year, which is the biggest deceleration in speed we’ve ever seen.’
Things have been changing so fast that scientists were forced to release an off-cycle update in 2019 to keep navigation systems aligned.
Experts believe that these sudden shifts could be caused by turbulence within the Earth’s molten core.
Earth has a magnetic field because of the swirling layer of molten iron in the outer core, a region between the solid inner core and the liquid mantle.
As this hot iron moves through the existing magnetic field, the motion induces an electric charge in the conductive metal.
That charge, in turn, creates a stronger magnetic field which yields an even larger charge and a stronger magnetic field.
Over the last 20 years, the North Pole has been shifting extremely quickly before suddenly slowing down in 2019 from a rate of 50km per year to just 35km per year. Experts believe this has been caused by disturbances in the planet’s molten iron outer core
This process, called the geodynamo, is the reason that Earth still has a magnetic field billions of years after it formed.
Yet, because the molten iron doesn’t move predictably the magnetic pole can wander freely over the Arctic.
Scientists now believe that there may be two large ‘blobs’ of negative magnetic flux at the boundary between the core and the mantle underneath Canada and Siberia.
The resulting tug of war between these two blobs is causing the pole to shift at an unprecedented rate.
Some models predict that over the next decade, the Magnetic Pole will continue on its current trajectory and will travel a further 240-410 miles (390–660 km) towards Siberia.
If the changes continue to be just as rapid, that might mean more frequent updates to the WWM in order to keep your smartphone working as it should.
