The updated version of the World Magnetic Model was released on Dec. 17, with a new prediction of how the magnetic north pole will shift over the next five years. Here's why it was changed.

The magnetic north pole has wandered away from the Canadian Arctic (solid blue line) and toward Siberia for about the past century, but it has considerably sped up over the past 20 years.

The south magnetic pole is also moving, though at a much slower rate (10-15km a year). This rapid wandering of the north magnetic pole has caused some problems for scientists and navigators alike.

British explorer Sir James Clark Ross discovered the magnetic north pole in 1831 in northern Canada, approximately 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) south of the true North Pole.

In the 300 years between 1600 and 1900, scientists estimate that the magnetic North Pole moved about six miles per year. At the beginning of this century, it picked up to about 34 miles per year ...

Earth’s magnetic north is not static. Like an anchorless buoy pushed by ocean waves, the magnetic field is constantly on the move as liquid iron sloshes around in the planet’s outer core.

A Magnetic Shift. Magnetic north is not fixed like its geographic counterpart, the North Pole. Instead, it meanders, driven by the roiling motion of molten metals in Earth’s outer core.

The magnetic North Pole is on a journey toward Russia in a way that has not been seen before. The British Geological Survey (BGS) works with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric ...

The Earth's magnetic north pole is racing towards Siberia—and it is following an "unusual" and historically unprecedented path on its way. Experts told Newsweek that the pole could reach the ...

From 1999 to 2005, Earth’s magnetic north pole went from shifting nine miles at most each year to as much as 37 miles in a year. Nature Geoscience. Earth’s magnetic north pole is shifting.