What are the causes of earth's …

Earth’s Magnetism is generated by convection currents of molten iron and nickel in the earth’s core. These currents carry streams of charged particles and generate magnetic fields. This magnetic field deflects ionising charged particles coming from the sun (called solar wind) and prevents them from entering our atmosphere. Without this magnetic shield, the solar wind could have slowly destroyed our atmosphere preventing life on earth to exist. Mars does not have a strong atmosphere that can sustain life because it does not have a magnetic field protecting it.

The earth’s magnetic poles are not aligned to the actual geographic north and south poles. Instead, the magnetic south pole is in Canada while the magnetic north pole lies in Antarctica. The magnetic poles are inclined by about 10 degrees to the earth’s rotational axis. So, all this time your compass was really pointing to Canada, not the true North.