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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: September 10, 2017

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REAL LIFE NEWS: NORTHERN LIGHTS COULD HAVE CAUSED WHALE STRANDINGS

by Hazed

In early 2016 29 sperm whales became stranded on the coastline of the North Sea. Unable to escape, they died on European beaches. Now scientists think they know why – they were led astray by the Northern Lights.

Sperm whales live all around the world in warm water, and when the young males are between 10 and 15 years old they head to the polar region where they can feast on huge quantities of squid that thrive in the colder water.

Their usual journey takes them up the west coasts of the UK and Ireland and into the Norwegian sea, then back by the same route. But the 29 sperm whales found stranded on the coasts of the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands had for some reason taken a different route, through the North Sea which runs down the east cost of the UK.

Now a team of researchers think that sperm whales navigate using the Earth’s geomagnetic field. The field is stronger in some places than others so the whales use the differing strengths as a route map.

But large solar storms may have distorted the magnetic field, causing the whales to take a wrong turn and lose their way.

This theory makes sense, given that we already have evidence that solar storm activity can impact the ability of birds and bees to navigate.

Scientists believe that the whales see a regular magnetic anomaly off the Norwegian coast as a “geomagnetic mountain chain”, a kind of guardrail that prevents them from entering the North Sea. The solar storms may have nullified this effect, rendering the mountain chain invisible and allowing the whales to swim through into the North Sea.

Right now, this is just a theory, and it’s going to be hard to prove it. There was a big solar storm in the month prior to the whale stranding, but a lot more data and observations will be needed to see if that was just a coincidence.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41110082

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