What will exactly happen if the poles indeed change?

Magentic north is constantly moving very very slowly, and eventually it will no longer be at what we regard as the "North Pole". It pretty much can't move fast enough to just trade places with the South pole by magic, it literally takes thousands and millions of years. It certainly won't happen by 2012, and isn't likely to happen in our lifetimes.

If and when it does happen, it will affect how the plates shift. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge shows what happens when the poles on earth change.

I don't think it will be a doomsday event. It's happened many time since life began.

	felixthecat -  4794 pts -  (2 years ago)
	Right. People get all worked up about these things. Same with the natural phenomenon of Global Warming. It has happened before, and it will happen again.

	Rome -  428 pts -  (2 years ago)
	I think Global Warming is a faster, more frequent event and can't be compared to polar shift.

I'm working on my answer, so give me a short moment in time to make it as understandable as I can... I'm trying to sum up massive amounts of info in a few paragraphs. But I think I can give you the info you seek...