North is not Always Up - The Magnetic Poles

For the topic North is not Always Up in the #30DayMapChallenge, I visualized the global magnetic field, showing how the magnetic poles diverge from the geographical ones.

I have wrestled a lot with this piece, both in terms of topic and visuals. In the end, I defaulted to my background in Physics and decided to draw up the Earth’s magnetic field with its Main Field Declination lines. These lines, as magnetic poles, can either be positive or negative. The Earth’s magnetic north pole is defined by these lines - which is not always up. Its moving! In recent years, it started migrating from the Canadian Arctic towards Russia at a speed of several kilometres per year.

𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞:

https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=3b9045c4d1aa408694d3759d1aa5ede4

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/world-magnetic-model

Data accessed: 2023 November 17