Traveling Blog by Aden: Magnetic Hill

Friday, June 24, 2011

Magnetic Hill

Have you ever heard of a magnetic mountain located in Saudi Arabia? Alhamdulillah last March I had the opportunity to go there. The mountain is about 40 km of the city of Medina towards the city of Tabuk. Looks like the mountains mostly in Saudi Arabia this mountain also form of a barren hill rocks.

Differences can only be felt when the vehicle reached the highway between the hills. About 4 kilometers along the road in the hills believed to have a thrust force. The car will run at high speed away from the mountain magnet toward Medina albeit with a neutral gear position.

Meanwhile, if the car driven by a magnetic mountain passes toward the City of Tabuk, the driver will experience difficulty in driving. The car will feel heavy and is only capable of traveling at 15-20 km / h, whereas no uphill roads impassable.

There are no clear boundaries, from which the street that has a magnetic field. But the bus driver told me, the influence of magnets that can begin to be felt when the vehicle sped from the dam water which is not far from the spin magnetic mountain up the hill towards the junction to the city of Medina.

The compass needle is also not working properly here. North-south direction becomes chaotic. Even some of the visitors claimed to have lost the data on his cell phone at that location.

Magnetic Hill, or the locals call it Manthiqa Baidha, which means white settlement. However, many are named Jabal Magnet. Geologically, Jabal Magnet phenomenon can be explained with logic. Because, the City of Medina and surrounding stands on an old Arabian Shield that has been aged 700 million years.

The area was a precipitate lava "alkali basaltic" (theolitic basalt) covering an area of 180,000 sq km of young age(appeared 10 million years ago with a peak intensity of 2 million years ago). The alkaline lavas that outcrop from the depths of 40s of kilometers through the fracture zone along the 600 kilometers known as the "Mecca-Medina-Nufud volcanic line".

1 comment: