Magnetic avalanches occur when the polarity of a molecular nanomagnet is changed suddenly and sufficient energy is released to cause a chain reaction that changes the polarity of the other molecular nanomagnets in a crystal.
I first read the title from a syllabus written down for some diploma students I was to teach "data structures". I had no idea what it meant in relation with Data Structures for Software Engineers.
New research brings models of magnetic avalanches much closer to reality, helping physicists understand both why they happen and why they don't run out of control, wiping disk drives clean.
Correcting even a single typo in an e-mail means changing dozens of bits of information. For each bit, a magnetic head grazes a tiny patch of your disk drive, forcing its polarity, or "spin," to align up or down--the magnetic equivalent of a one or a zero. The patch's polarity in many magnetic materials changes in a haphazard series of large and small jumps that physicists liken to an avalanche--though Deutsch's research shows it often behaves more like an explosion or runaway fire.
So, the scientists know how to stop avalanches on the disks. But still we lose data due to magnetic avalanches.
Now this is one of the better reasons for us to go for inventions which store bits in digital format with an electricity supply like that of a wireless charger. Obviously it will be faster than a spinning disk and moving armature to access the sectors of the storage media.
References:
Magnetic Avalanche - Dynamic Combustion
http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/120196/magnetic-wobbles-cause-disk-failure.html
Wobbly Polarity Is Key To Preventing Magnetic Avalanches On Disk Drives
