I have a question about the potential pole reversal in 2012?

There is absolutely no scientific evidence supporting the claim that there could be a geomagnetic reversal around the time of December 21st, 2012.

the effects of such a reversal have been totally over-hyped.

Pole Shifts have happened more than 180 times before, as detected in the paleomagnetic record of rocks on the ocean floor and in some lava flows. These magnetic reversals take place every 100,000 to 25 million years, according to Scientific American, and may take as long as 5,000 years to do so.

We'll most likely experience aurorae at all latitudes whilst the dipolar magnetic field settles down to its new, reversed state, and there might be a small increase in energetic particles from space

we'll still be protected by our thick atmosphere.

The Earth's magnetic field is more complicated than a single round magnet. The field would take a few thousand years to reverse, and during that period it never goes all the way down to zero. Instead, it goes down to about 1/3 of full strength, then a bunch of weak north and south poles appear here and there, and they wander around. Eventually, one of north poles settles down near Antarctica, and grows stronger, and the others disappear. At the same time, one of the south poles does the same thing in the Arctic.

Magnetic pole reversals occur over hundreds of thousands of years. NO MASS extinction events can be tied to a past pole reversal.

ONLY our iphones and compass will know it happened.

By the way the magnetic pole already drifts around. Where I live magnetic North is about 5 degrees away from TRUE North. This is called magnetic deviation and it changes a little bit every year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_declination

This is just another part of the 2012 hoax!

http://www.2012hoax.org/

Yes Michael, you're right. Actually you got that surprisingly right--kudos for using your critical thinking skills on this one.

You hit the nail on the head thinking "Hey, wait a minute, a pole *reversal* can't mean the poles disappear--it must mean they...oh, what's the word? REVERSE, right?"

Right. And pole reversals do in fact occur--about every half billion years or something like that. But pole reversals don't occur on specific dates, such as December 21, 2012. They take hundreds of years to occur, and when they do, they don't affect life on the planet. So what you heard had a kernel of truth to it, but as usual with any doomsday prediction, that kernel of truth was quickly coated with layers of pseudoscience.

Re. other planets--not all planets have an appreciable magnetic field. Mars and Venus don't, for instance. But those that do probably also experience pole reversals, yes. At least I can't see why they wouldn't.

Not happening. Even if the poles start shifting, which won't happen in 2012, it would take thousands of years to complete. Besides, it's already happened a few times before in Earth's history, and this planet's still here, isn't it?

pole reversal takes millenia, not gonna happen in 1 year and we would already be seeing evidence it it was gonna happen...

You definitely have it but we all know the end of the world is caused by the successful election of Hillary Clinton, banning of video games, and her upheaval by the youth of America.

dude, type

NASA 2012

in any search engine and read what u find