Approximately 41,000 years ago, during the Laschamps geomagnetic excursion, Earth’s magnetic field experienced a significant disturbance. The strength of the magnetic field decreased to only 10% of what it is today, the magnetic poles shifted considerably from the geographic poles, and the magnetosphere—the protective layer surrounding our planet—became smaller and distorted in previously unvisual ...[Read More]
Chasing Auroras 41 Millennia Ago with Agnit Mukhopadhyay and Sanja Panovska
Auroras occur when energetic particles from the Sun are transported along the Earth's magnetic field and collide with atmospheric gases, producing characteristic green and red light. Typically restricted to high latitudes, auroras extended toward the equator during the Laschamp event (~41,000 years ago) when Earth's magnetic field was unusually weak and multipolar. This image presents an artistic rendering of those ancient auroras based on a recently developed global magnetic field model. (Credit: GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Maximilian Schanner).