> South is Down...

And now to really confuse you.....

The North magnetic pole is not somewhere in the vicinity of the North geographic pole. It is, in fact, at the opposite end of the earth, somewhere near the South geographic pole. It's the SOUTH end of a compass needle (ie the blue bit) that happens to be pointing toward the Arctic. It does so because it is at the mercy of the North pole of the compass needle, dutifully pointing towards the North magnetic pole.

Stick around a few million years and things will reverse, the North magnetic pole and the North geographic pole will be virtually coincident.

Why? "They" are still working on the answer to that.

stales