• Question: is the earth a magnet

    Asked by to Anna, Iain, Nick on 20 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Anna Middleton

      Anna Middleton answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      Hi Peter246
      The earth is like a magnet because at the centre is a load of liquid iron (it’s very hot in there). This metal moves around and creates a magnetic field. You can pick this up of you use a compass.

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 21 Mar 2014:

      Yes, it is a magnet. As Anna said, this is because of currents of molten iron flowing around the interior of the earth. This is very important for us, because this field deflects charged cosmic rays coming from space, and protects us from them. Still, even though this is so important, nobody know exactly how the iron circulates, and there are many unanswered questions. For instance, there is something called geomagnetic reversal, where north and south poles earth’s magnetic field flip around every half a million years or so. There are theories for how this could happen, but nobody knows for sure.

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