Following the unexplained deaths of several thousand birds over the last two weeks, events are now emerging that may offer a physics-based explanation for the mysterious deaths. It all begins on a runway in Tampa, where airport officials recently closed that runway in order to change the numeric designators painted there. Why are those numeric designators being changed? Because the Earth's magnetic poles are shifting and the numbers previously painted on the runway no longer match up with the magnetic measurements of sensitive airplane instruments (http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01...).
As Physorg.com explains:
The primary runway at the airport is designated 18R/36L, which means the runway is aligned along 180 degrees from north (that is, due south) when approached from the north and 360 degrees from north when approached from the south. Now the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has requested the designation be changed to 19R/1L to account for the movement of the magnetic north pole.
This brings us to our first physics fact of this article:
Physics Fact #1: The Earth's magnetic poles are shifting. (And not just a little bit, but enough to affect airport runways on the scale of human observation.)
The role of Earth's magnetic field
The Earth's magnetic field is extremely important for protecting the planet from so-called "solar wind" and other electromagnetic influences from space. The magnetosphere, which is driven by the Earth's magnetic field, serves as a kind of electromagnetic barrier to prevent dangerous rays from reaching the surface of the planet.You can see a picture of that here: http://www.theozonehole.com/magneti...
Physics Fact #2: The Earth's magnetic field has flipped hundreds of times in the past.
The Earth's magnetic field "flips" (or reverses polarity) every few thousand years. This is called a geomagnetic reversal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomag...). In between these flips, the magnetic field can become quite weak and chaotic, causing "turbulence" in the field, which can effectively cause weaker gaps in the magnetosphere.
These magnetic gaps or weaknesses can allow outside influences that normally would not penetrate the magnetosphere to reach deep into that magnetosphere, theoretically all the way down to where birds fly at very low altitude.
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