Go to: POLE POINTER A compass points not to the geographic but to the magnetic North Pole. Due to fluxes in Earth's magnetic field, the moving spot skips around each day and travels on average more than 6 miles each year. Identified in 1999 near Ellef Ringnes Island in Northern Canada, the magnetic pole is roughly 600 miles from the geographic one. Scientists think it could migrate northward into Russia within 50 years. (09/18/02)