The Magnetic North Pole is, apparently, stranger than I ever imagined. I knew about the periodic polarity flips, and I vaguely recall something about the magnetic poles drifting slightly on a fairly constant basis, but there’s more to it than just those two oddities. Like anything else, I suppose, the more you dig into a subject the more detail you find. For instance:
Reversals take a few thousand years to complete, and during that time—contrary to popular belief—the magnetic field does not vanish. […] Magnetic lines of force near Earth’s surface become twisted and tangled, and magnetic poles pop up in unaccustomed places. A south magnetic pole might emerge over Africa, for instance, or a north pole over Tahiti.
And all of a sudden the Boy Scouts stop equipping themselves with hand compasses and switch to GPS or some other satellite-based navigation device. Hoo boy. Even now, using just a compass to get to the Magnetic North Pole of the planet isn’t really a straight-line affair:
Contrary to popular belief, a compass needle does not point directly at the North Magnetic Pole. However, if a traveller sets out from some location and proceeds in the direction in which his or her compass needle points, he or she will eventually reach the North Magnetic Pole, but by a route that will not be direct. […] Although the direct path to the Magnetic Pole requires a traveller setting out from southern Europe, at the edge of the map, to head 8 degrees west of north, a compass will lead the traveller almost 3 degrees east of north. By the time the traveller reaches Scandinavia he or she is over 18 degrees off course, and at 80 N, almost 46 degrees of course. [sic]
At times like this I wish I was a smarter, more studious sort of fellow, because I could very easily see myself as a geophysicist. Unfortunately a lot of this stuff very nearly goes over my head, and what I’m reading now is a digest version of things, distilled for the masses. That shouldn’t prevent you from checking out the following links, however. Hey, there are pictures and stuff!
Earth’s Inconstant Magnetic Field
Geomagnetism – The Arctic Regions
