Scientists baffled as North Pole is moving toward Russia - and it could play havoc with our phones

Scientists are baffled as the North Pole moves increasingly closer to which could eventually play havoc with people's smartphones.

The magnetic has been moving closer to the largest country in the since the early nineteenth century. The magnetic field, which is different to the geographical North Pole which is the world's northernmost point, is the direction in which the compass needle points. It doesn't have a fixed location and changes as a result of magnetic activity underneath the crust.

But in a new development that has puzzled the of the world, the recent restless movement caused by churning molten iron, has slowed to about 15 miles a year, according to the World Magnetic Model. The new speed it is travelling at is around 10 miles a year slower than in 2020 when the model was last updated.

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"The magnetic pole has been moving very slowly around for many centuries since the 1500s," Dr Ciarán Beggan of the British Geological Survey told the . "In the past 20 years, it accelerated north towards Siberia, increasing speed every year until about five years ago, when it suddenly decelerated from 50 to 40km per year.

"This is behaviour we've not observed ever before. It makes forecasting magnetic field change more difficult. In contrast, the south pole is moving very slowly. We don't know really why there's such differences between the hemispheres."

The shifts may not seem important to people's day-to-day lives but they do affect everyone in some way. Magnetic compasses continue to be pivotal for modern navigation, directing aircrafts and submarines, and even aid the compasses on our phones. Since the North Pole's discovery in 1831, the magnetic field has been moving towards Siberia.

The British Geological Survey, which developed the World Magnetic Model along with the US National Geophysical Data Centre uses primarily constellation of European Space Agency satellites. Professor Phil Livermore of the University of Leeds suggests fluctuations in the magnetic pole are caused by the movement of a jet stream of liquid iron in the core of our planet.

The ability to track the movement would help scientists in forecasting changes, but the process is complicated due to the liquid iron lies so deep beneath the surface of the earth.