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Comments on What happens if Earth's magnetic field shuts down? How long does it take for damage to occur?

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What happens if Earth's magnetic field shuts down? How long does it take for damage to occur?

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What happens if Earth's magnetic field shuts down? How exactly does this impact humans, and how long before we need to make significant changes for survival?

Does it make any difference if Earth's magnetic field shuts down "rapidly" vs., say, slowly decreasing by 2% a week for a decade?

My understanding is that, as Earth's interior cools, we expect that in the distant future eventually Earth's magnetic field will shut down. For story / plot reasons, my story has this occurring near the present day plus or minus a hundred years (perhaps during WWII, roughly the same time the two magnetic north "local poles" were located by Project Nanook (a) ).

Some people imply that if the magnetic field of the Earth is not really that significant to human life, at least in the "near future" of few thousand years. (a) (b)

Other people claim that the magnetic field of the Earth is absolutely necessary for human life ( (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) ) or for human-like life (the Laschamp event may have led to the the extinction of the Neanderthals).

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One source of information might be "A City on Mars" (1 comment)
One source of information might be "A City on Mars"
Canina‭ wrote 11 months ago

I don't have a ready answer for you, but one book you might want to check out is A City on Mars: Can we settle space, Should we settle space, and Have we really thought this through by Weinersmith and Weinersmith. One of the issues discussed is precisely the effects of not having the protection of a magnetic field; IIRC that book discusses it primarily in the context of a Mars or space station settlement, but the same issues should apply also on Earth absent a magnetic field. It also has a large number of citations, so if you want to get closer to the source material it should serve well as a starting point.