Scientists explain magnetic pole's wanderings

地球的北磁极移动了？科学家解释这一现象

At the top of the world, there is a place where magnetic field lines point vertically into the Earth's surface. It's called the North Magnetic Pole and it wanders over time.

在地球北部的顶端，有一个地方的磁场线垂直指向地球表面。这个地方被称为北磁极，它随着时间的推移而漂移。

Back in the early nineteenth century, it was sighted in the north of Canada and was drifting only slowly to slightly higher latitudes. But then in the 1990s, it took off, racing across the Arctic towards Russia.

早在19世纪初，人们在加拿大北部发现了北磁极，那时它只是缓慢地向纬度较高的地方漂移。但在20世纪90年代，北磁极离开了原来的地方，迅速穿过北极，向俄罗斯移去。

A European team, led from Leeds University, has now tied this dramatic movement to specific changes in the flow of molten iron in the Earth's outer core – the dynamo that creates and sustains its magnetic field. World navigation systems have just been updated to account for the pole’s rapid movement, which the scientists say, could continue for decades yet.