Category Archives: palaeomagic

Geological mayhem and destruction in 2012: not the end of the world, just business as usual

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Chris Rowan

We don’t live on a boring planet. 2012 will be plagued by natural disasters, but so is every other year. Continue reading →

Categories: antiscience, climate science, earthquakes, geohazards, palaeomagic, public science, volcanoes

Does plate tectonics control magnetic reversals?

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Chris Rowan

Possibly, but this paper will not convince you. Continue reading →

Categories: Cenozoic, geophysics, Mesozoic, palaeomagic, tectonics

Portolan Maps: the medieval GPS?

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Chris Rowan

With the right chart, all medieval navigators needed to get from port to port was a compass, and a bearing to follow… Continue reading →

Categories: palaeomagic

Why does a compass point north? A mystery at the heart of the story of science (book review)

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Chris Rowan

Strange as it might seem, I’m finding North Pole, South Pole, paleomagnetist Gillian Turner’s newly published account of “the epic quest to solve the great mystery of Earth’s magnetism”, a difficult book to review. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy … Continue reading →

Categories: geophysics, palaeomagic, public science, reviews

Earth’s magnetic field: still not reversing

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Chris Rowan

Birds falling from the sky? Airport runways realigning? 2012 approaching? Only one of these things is at all to do with magnetic field behaviour, and even that is nothing to worry about. Continue reading →

Categories: antiscience, palaeomagic