Every 200,000 – 300,000 years the earth’s magnetic pole flips, but the pole flip is overdue by approximately 780,000 years.[1] However, the only apocalypse we’re facing is a minor technological one.
Through geographical survey, and inspecting ancient pot handles, scientists have determined that the earth’s magnetic pole has been weakening for some time now, and is currently weakening at ten times the normal rate[2].
There was a geomagnetic movement, that amounted to an incomplete reversal, with no change in polarity 41,000 years ago (during the last ice age). So in other words, the pole moved a bit. This was known as “The Laschamp event”
This explains to some extent why the poles haven’t flipped entirely, as whatever hypothetical force which builds to move the poles may have been relived slightly by this movement. However it’s hard to tell, as no one really knows why the poles flip, other than “because of the mantle, probably”.
The overdue flip, combined with the weakening of the field implies a “Geomagnetic reversal” is imminent. However, it’s not the apocalypse for humans, but for cyberspace, the mild inconvenience is nigh!
Satellites rely on the magnetic poles to navigate, in a similar ways to compasses or birds do (yes, birds- and no, we don’t know why). Remember Gravity (the film)? Well, if a number of satellites were to fall out of orbit, they could hit other satellites on the way down and cause a cascade reaction.
Due to high demand on networks due to the same demand being spread over fewer satellites, networks could collapse leaving people without Wifi for possibly an entire day. Theoretically, ‘dead spots’ could emerge, leading to some areas being without mobile and internet connection for weeks (until a new satellite is launched in place)!
However, this is very improbable, almost impossible. There’s a lot of space In space, funnily enough, so the chances of this “cascade event” occurring area about the same as one of those birds I talked about falling out of the sky, colliding with a few flying pigs on the way down, and knocking a Ryan Air flight off course from France to slightly above France.
In all seriousness though, your internet could get a little glitch-y, which I guess counts as an apocalypse if you get really angry about it.
When the poles do flip, it’s not actually a flip at all, but for the people who can’t be bothered to read this far into my article; I have oversimplified it. The pole changing is more of a crumple. Imagine pushing down on a plastic cup, and then rotating, pulling back into shape. Boom. There, now you understand physics. No, really: [3].
In the time that this is happening, the earth’s magnetic field will be weakened, allowing more mutating radiation to pierce the atmosphere. Fortunately, we’ve got a lot of clouds and carbon dioxide in the way of us and the cancer inducing particles. Who knows, maybe all those extra greenhouse gases could protect us all from the sun’s rays. However, this effect is probably countered by the chemically carcinogenic smog emitted by carbon sources all around us. Yay.
Recent theories on evolution suggest the idea of new and complex mutations, such as the eye, occurring in leaps and bounds wasn’t as wrong as once thought. This is opposed to the accepted slow changes over time proposed by Darwin. Could it be possible that the additional radiation exposure due to the poles flipping is the root cause of this theorized leaping? Maybe there was no ancient intelligent "missing link" ancestor- just a sudden blast into intelligence induced by a weakened geo-pole? Could the human Eye have formed simply because the magnetic poles decided to flippity-zip?
Just you see, ten years from now, I’ll be collecting my Nobel prize (that is, if no one has taken this idea already).
[1] https://futurism.com/earths-magnetic-poles-overdue-switch/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou1BiorYRNU
[3]https://www.psc.edu/science/glatzmaier.html