While I'm in the crazy universe

While I'm on this big thought, crazy universe theme- I'll share my latest idea for a sci-fi movie. First, a little geology lesson. So, it seems that the magnetic poles- north and south- change their polarity every few hundred thousand years or so. Geologists know this from studying the magnetic characteristics found in rock that has come out of the mid-atlantic sea floor as molten lava, only to harden into rock. As it hardens, the magnetic particles within it, take advantage of the fluidity and they align themselves with the positive magnetic pole. When you look at which way these particles face, you find a pattern of a width of rock lined up with the north pole, and then a width lined up with the south pole- indicating that in the past, the poles have shifted their polarity. The exact timing is hard to determine, as is why they switched (was there a bombardment of solar particles from the sun, or an asteroid coming too close?), but its pretty certain that they have indeed switched. There is much speculation as to what would happen if they switched tomorrow, as it hasn't happened in known human history. Certainly there would be some disruptions as GPS sattelites and compass system everywhere relocated their focus from North to South pole. But what else might happen?

Enter my sci-fi thriller....

So, to build the drama, you have some serious sun spot/aurora borealis/ magnetic fluctuation activity going on- and NASA and scientists world wide trying to figure out why and what it means. There's speculation of course, and you take on this one slightly crazy and discounted scientist type as your protagonist (male or female- wouldn't matter). They think it has something to do with the poles- and they would be right! Now, here's where we can take two different paths- the first having our protagonist using Biblical prophecy, egyptian, celtic and mayan calendars to figure out what's going to happen, and ending up in an deep underground bunker in the middle of Colorado- anticipating what is about to happen- which is the world actually shifts magnetic poles AND starts to revolve the other way. The result being that the entirety of atmosphere, topsoil, trees, buildings, cars, lakes, oceans, rivers etc. all get pulled off the earth- because as the globe grinds to a halt and begins to spin the other way- we loose all gravity for a few minutes- long enough for most volcanos to erupt, several earthquakes to happen, and all the aformentioned matter to get flung off into space. Our protagonist and friends have to then negotiate their way back up to the earth's surface (after the planet starts spinning the other way- sun rising in the West- whole nine yards) and then decide to repopulate- go live on the moon (which captured a bit of atmosphere when it spun off the earth in addition to altering its orbit a little further out) or maybe they simply all perish- I don't have a good ending there.

The second possible storyline involves the aforementioned science type using the same sources to figure out what is going to happen- and then its the save the world idea- how do you keep the north pole positive and what sort of satellite contraption can you use to affect the magnetic force...but in the end- life goes on as we know it.

So- there it is. I think that completes my crazy macro thinking for a little while. Maybe I'll just start blogging about how my son scored 14 of his teams 28 points in their semifinal basketball game! Look out Serge Zwicker and Cherokee Parks- there's another big goofy white boy in the paint who's on his way!