Geophysicists in the US are proposing a new magnetic field generated in the Earthâ??s core, the existence of which could help us understand why our planetâ??s magnetic moment has flipped several times in the past.
By measuring ancient field patterns frozen into the volcanic rocks of West Eifel in Germany and Tahiti in French Polynesia, Kenneth Hoffman of California Polytechnic University and Brad Singer of the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison have recorded the first data to suggest that the Earthâ??s dipolar magnetic field is accompanied by a second magnetic field with a distinct origin in the Earthâ??s core (Science 321 1800).