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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/23/australia-politician-claims-northern-territory-water-could-flip-earths-magnetic-poles>
"A Northern Territory minister has been criticised for scientifically
inaccurate claims that groundwater in the Northern Territory needs to be used
to prevent the Earth’s magnetic poles from flipping.
The NT minister for trade and business, Robyn Cahill, made the claim while
speaking in Darwin last week about the government’s push to make the territory
“the datacentre capital of the globe”.
“For datacentres, the water supply is already in existence. It’s mainly
subterranean,” she said. “The water supply that Darwin has is extraordinary.”
“There’s scientific evidence to suggest that we have so much water underground
in the Northern Territory that it actually impacts the axis of the Earth when
we have a really bad wet season, so we need to use some of it otherwise we
might find ourselves flipping the poles again.”
The Environment Centre NT’s executive director, Kirsty Howey, described
Cahill’s claim as “completely cooked”.
“The minister appears to believe that the Northern Territory’s wet season can
alter Earth’s axis, which has no scientific basis,” Howey said. “It’s
frightening that the people in charge of regulating dangerous industries like
fracking and datacentres seem to lack even a high-school understanding of water
science.”
Dr Dylan Irvine, a groundwater hydrology expert at Charles Darwin University,
told
ABC Darwin: “We’re not at risk of the poles flipping … I’m not concerned
about the Earth tipping or flipping of poles.”
The Earth’s most recent major geomagnetic reversal – in which the positions of
magnetic north and magnetic south flip – is known as the Brunhes-Matuyama
reversal, and occurred an estimated 780,000 years ago. The flip is not instant:
scientific analysis suggests reversals take 7,000 years on average to occur.
A recent temporary flip of the poles, classified as an “excursion” rather than
a full geomagnetic reversal – occurred 42,000 years ago and lasted for about
1,000 years.
“This is driven by processes that happen in the deep Earth … that happen in the
Earth’s core … not so much groundwater systems,” Irvine said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
