During the last ice age, around 41,000 years ago, there was a very rapid and complete reversal of the Earth’s geomagnetic field, according to new research. There was already localized evidence of polarity reversals during this time, but with the new research, the theory that it was a global event is now strongly supported. And very interestingly, it is one that nearly coincided with the very fast, short-term climate variability of the last ice age and the largest volcanic eruption in the northern hemisphere during the last 100,000 years.

Magnetic studies using sediment cores taken from the Black Sea, done by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, have clearly shown that if you had a compass at the Black Sea during that time, it would have pointed towards the south, not the north.

But more importantly, new data gathered by the researchers when it’s combined with additional data from previous studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific, and Hawaii, strongly supports the theory that this polarity reversal was truly global.

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