Why are the north and south poles where they are

the North and South geographic poles are where the earths axis intersects the surface. The magnetic poles are where the magnetic dipole is resolved at the surface (for the specific time under examination). These two points hardly ever match, and when they do , its only briefly.
Magnetic poles wander all over the place and geographic poles wobble and apparently wander through geologic time because the land masses are like rafts floating on the mantle, and these land masses are pushed about by forces that derive from seafloor spreading and seafloor diving down "subducting" at continental margins. Actually, the moving land masses "float by" the poles and it appears that the geographic poles wander when its the landmasses that are actually moving. The magnetic pole does wander and actually flips about every 700000 years. We are now entering a period when our N seeking pole will become the S seeking pole.
Thats about as simple and as direct as I can make it without the math

ps the earth isnt really "round" its whats known as a oblate spheroid (which means its actually kind of pear shaped with the narrome end at the N geographic pole). Id say its more like a mango than a pear but this aint about fresh fruit its about polar axes.

Great pic of new geoid (credit ESA): http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/GOCE/SEM1AK6UPLG_0.html

They are where they are because they are too big to cart off, and because the republicans of this world have not been able to sell them as realestate because they are too damned cold..

The earth is not round... It flattens noticably in the North and South... The Guy who first discovered this fact was a Frenchman living before the end of the Monarchy, and for that he was given the label of: the Earth Flattener...

People are so ungrateful when it comes to knowledge... They always act like: Hey, GD it, I didn't need to know that, and now we will have to change all the text books... Fck you very much, Ess Hole...If a guy could figure out how to tell everyone what they want to hear he could be elected God...When it comes to truth people only want as much as they can use to kill, and never more than they can defend against.

Here's an article from How Stuff Works with pictorials demonstrating what Farmerman described:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/question782.htm

Wow, those are some excellent animations at this site.

Thank you for you time and answers I can see this question is not a simple one. I understand the magnetic poles are unstable and that they wobble and can flip. I still don’t understand why these areas are unique and draw the fields too these points. Are you saying its because the south and north poles have less mass or the equator has most mass?

Very interesting site I wonder what they will learn from this adventure it’s exciting stuff!

The rotation of the earth causes a particular pattern of flow in the semi-fluid interior of the planet. That flow results in an alignment of magnetic field lines which coincide with the poles on the rotational axis (more or less).

Is that official; or a guess??? My guess is that it is the way the more solid matter around the center has aligned itself gravitationally as it cooled that is some senses corusponds to the electro magnetic alignment of the solid matter... Every igneous rock, as it cools aligns itself to the poles, and to measure that shift in old rock tells something about movement of the earths mantle in time... Matter in a fluid state has not magnetic alignment, but that does not mean your explnation is necessarily incorrect... The heat at the core of the earth is not only the result of gravitational friction, But also results from Nuclear activity which frees a lot of electrons, and protons, and until these atoms and particles stabilize in some fashion they release enrgy that can only be conceived of as electron volts, and this nuclear activity, and electrically charged matter, some times, great masses of it- are forever slaming into the earth which can account for much of the fluctuation... The earths electromagnetic field is not static... The field results from the flow of charged matter from a place of higher pressure to lower, to use a metaphore, but it is not very powerful... If a deposite of iron, or a sunken ship can throw off a compass, then the field of the earth is not much, no matter how essential it is to our evolution and life..

It's official. Although, I oversimplified it.

Here's a bit more detail if you're interested:
http://www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=64

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_magnetic_field#Earth.27s_core_and_the_geodynamo