posted December 01, 2012 06:56 PM            

Totally natural. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/reversals.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1215_051215_north_pole.html http://www.pureenergysystems.com/news/2005/02/27/6900064_Magnet_Pole_Shift/

The Earth is a living entity, it goes through cycles of change as any living evolving growing being should. http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/002123.html
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/002286.html
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum29/HTML/000134.html
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/003797.html
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0927_040927_field_flip.html http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/glossary/mag_field_reversals.html http://www.psc.edu/science/glatzmaier.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/ http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/hoffman.html http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1282336.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal http://www.es.ucsc.edu/~glatz/geodynamo.html

The SUN does a flip too. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15feb_1.htm

Magnetic field reversals
Main article: geomagnetic reversal
Based upon the study of lava formations in Hawaii, it has been deduced that the Earth's magnetic field reverses at intervals, ranging from tens of thousands to many millions of years, with an average interval of approximately 250,000 years. The last such event, called the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, occurred some 780,000 years ago.

The mechanism responsible for geomagnetic reversals is not well understood. Some scientists have produced models for the core of the Earth wherein the magnetic field is only quasi-stable and the poles can spontaneously migrate from one orientation to the other over the course of a few hundred to a few thousand years. Other scientists propose that the geodynamo first turns itself off, either spontaneously or through some external action like a comet impact, and then restarts itself with the magnetic "North" pole pointing either North or South. External events are not likely to be routine causes of magnetic field reversals due to the lack of a correlation between the age of impact craters and the timing of reversals. Regardless of the cause, when magnetic "North" reappears in the opposite direction this is a reversal, whereas turning off and returning in the same direction is called a geomagnetic excursion.

Using a magnetic detector (a variant of a compass), scientists have measured the historical direction of the Earth's magnetic field, by studying the layered iron-rich lava rocks. This is possible as each layer has been found to maintain the original magnetic field at its time of cooling. They have found that the poles have shifted a number of times throughout the past.

posted December 04, 2012 10:01 PM            

I also have to wonder if other planets had any changes around the same time-frame...
What was our section of the galaxy passing through, if anything, around the time of the last reversal. Or even our solar system if more localized, for that matter...