The Earth magnetic field varies at all timescales and significant changes can happen within a few human lifespans. Outstanding geomagnetic changes at the human timescale include the South Atlantic Anomaly documented by instrumental data over the last centuries and ancient geomagnetic instabilities recorded in geological archives such as the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly. Over geological times, homo sapiens and early humans also experienced the most extreme changes of the Earth’s magnetic field, reversals and excursions, and may have been affected by them.

This session invites contributions dealing with millennial and centennial “human timescale” geomagnetic field variability of all temporal and spatial scales. This includes high-resolution records (sediments, cave deposits, lava flows, archaeological artifacts), proxy data from cosmogenic isotopes, regional compilations, and models. Topics may include rate of change, regional anomalies and underlying mechanisms, field behaviour during instabilities, regional paleomagnetic dating, and geomagnetic field models for understanding variations and core processes.