Earth’s magnetic field is often described as a steady shield, but the geological record tells a more restless story. Polarity ...

In 1963, Fred Vine, Drummond Matthews, and others found that the crust surrounding the midocean ridges showed alternating bands -- each band magnetized with a polarity opposite the surrounding bands.

Earth’s magnetic field can linger in a weakened, unstable state for tens of thousands of years before fully flipping.

Earth's magnetic field is generated by the churn of its liquid nickel-iron outer core, but it is not a constant feature.

Earth’s magnetic field seems steady and true — reliable enough to navigate by. Yet, largely hidden from daily life, the field drifts, waxes and wanes. The magnetic North Pole is currently careening ...

WASHINGTON—A new global analysis of the last 19 million years of seafloor spreading rates found they have been slowing down. Geologists want to know why the seafloor is getting sluggish. New oceanic ...

A new analysis of computer simulations of Earth’s magnetic field suggests that its behavior was different early in Earth’s history, resulting in greater stability and fewer reversals of the magnetic ...

A new global analysis of the last 19 million years of seafloor spreading rates found they have been slowing down. Geologists want to know why the seafloor is getting sluggish. A new global analysis of ...