By JIM STONE
First of all, I'd like to state that it is a certainty - a pole shift is definitely coming and there is irrefutable proof it will definitely happen geologically written into the rocks at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
We have all heard of continental drift and crustal movement of the Earth. And one place where a lot of spreading is happening is at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The spreading zone is approximately 1000 miles off the West coasts of Europe and Africa. Scientists have studied the spreading zones, and there they have proven that Earth really does flip it's magnetic poles quite frequently.
When studying the spreading zone, scientists have studied the rock that has been produced to fill the gap (from magma coming up from the mantle) and there they have found the world's best proof that pole shifting is as common to the earth's life as the changing of the seasons are to us. They have been able to prove this because in the spreading zone, the magnetic orientation of the rocks points both north and south in alternating rows. This magnetic orientation can only be set when the rocks are liquid magma, which gets it's magnetic orientation set by the position of the Earth's magnetic poles as it solidifies.
On the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, there is a perfect geological record which proves beyond all doubt that in geological terms, the Earth's magnetic poles move quite frequently. And when they do, there is chaos.
Aside from the obvious, such as migratory animals having to re-orientate to get to where they need to go for the changing of the seasons (which no doubt sparks extinctions of some species) there are two huge things to consider, that are probably a lot more important.
First of all the earth's crust is magnetic in nature, and it is predominantly magnetic in one direction, with (at this time) the crust's own general magnetic alignment opposite that of the core's magnetic alignment (to satisfy magnetic attraction) where opposite poles attract and similar poles repel. Obviously you know that the crust can move, because it floats on a molten core. It therefore seeks a polarity opposite that which is in the Earth's core, because with magnetism opposites attract.
The magnetic field in the Earth's core is overwhelmingly dominant over the crust, but the crust itself has significant magnetism, and this is very important during a pole shift because if the center magnetic field flips opposite, the crust will want to follow to balance out magnetically.
During the first year or so, I would not expect to see much action as far as movement of the crust is concerned. But over the years, the crust would definitely accelerate in it's movement, and even if it only moved a few feet a year, there would be geological mayhem of a sort mankind has never witnessed. Massive earthquakes. Huge volcanoes. "end of the world" type stuff. And no one knows exactly how fast the crust moves during a pole reversal, all that is known is that it definitely does. What if it only took a few years to completely change it's equatorial orientation? That would be catastrophic.
In the models that I have seen, Antarctica becomes equatorial. The crust does not do a total flip, it only goes half way or so. And it is extremely important to note the fossil records, which put various species in areas they should never be if the position of the Earth's crust really does stay stationary for even 100,000 years.
Though I myself am not worried about a pole shift simply because I do not worry about that type of thing because we can't do anything about it anyway (my bother is political, which we can have influence on) it is a cold hard reality that pole reversal is indeed even in terms of our own lives and civilization timeline something we should seriously consider, IT CAN happen, IT DOES happen, and IT WILL happen, WE ARE DUE FOR IT, and when that time comes, there will definitely be chaos.