Magnetic Flip

Programmes

• Moon Machines
• In the Shadow of the Moon
• The Underwater Dream Machine
• Nuclear Nightmares
• Hitler's Sunken Secret
• Global Dimming
• Project Poltergeist
• Magnetic Flip
• The Secret of El Dorado
• Rocket Men of Mission 105
• The Day the Oceans Boiled
• Hunt for the Death Star
• The Great Dog Race
• Einstein's Biggest Blunder

First transmitted on Channel Four / Equinox, May 2003; transmitted as Magnetic Storm on WGBH/NOVA in 2004

Could the Earth lose its magnetic field? And what will happen if it does?

There’s a region of our planet that no human being has ever visited. No one has ever seen this place, yet what happens there affects every one of us every day of our lives. It’s two thousand miles beneath our feet: the Earth’s molten core. Here a vast ocean of liquid iron generates an invisible force-field: the Earth’s magnetic field. It surrounds the entire planet, cocooning us from the dangers of space. But as this film reveals, scientists have made an alarming discovery. There’s a storm brewing deep within the Earth, a storm which could destroy our vital magnetic shield, with consequences for all of us.