Overview

• Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark and Germany’s GFZ unveiled the sonification in 2024, and fresh coverage has pushed it back into the spotlight this week.
• They mapped movements of Earth’s magnetic field lines and paired them with natural sounds to depict the Laschamps event about 41,000 years ago.
• Estimates of the field’s weakening during the excursion vary in the reporting, ranging from roughly 5% to about 25% of today’s strength.
• Ice cores and marine sediments record elevated cosmogenic isotopes during the event, including a reported doubling of beryllium‑10.
• Scientists caution that current anomalies like the South Atlantic Anomaly raise radiation exposure for satellites but are not proof of an impending global reversal.