Convergence

« "The Anomalies, they're opening up everywhere!"
"All over the world"
"This is it, Convergence is coming. We're about to make history!" »

— Connor, Jess and Philip as Convergence starts.

Convergence was a natural phenomenon that occurred once every few million years and caused multiple Anomalies to open worldwide.

Process

Once every few million years, when the Earth's North and South Poles switched, dozens of Anomalies would open up all over the planet as part of the transition. James Lester also commented during Convergence that whenever an Anomaly that has opened for the process was locked, another one would open (although it is uncertain whether or not Lester was speaking metaphorically). Matt Anderson's words about Convergence implied that after the process was completed, the planet's climate and conditions would naturally change, but life would be able to adapt. It was possible to use man-made and unnatural means, such as technologically manipulating the Anomalies on a massive scale, to interrupt Convergence, causing all the Anomalies that had opened for the process to close. (Episode 5.5)

History

Matt Anderson had knowledge of Convergences and he indicated that a Convergence happens every few million years. (Episode 5.5)

Build up to the nearing Convergence

The Anomaly Detection Device shows Anomalies opening up during Convergence. (Episode 5.5)

Philip Burton, the founder of Prospero Industries, predicted that Convergence would occur, and (unaware that Convergence was a completely natural event, and he had been manipulated by Helen Cutter for her own goals) planned to created a machine, capable of interrupting Convergence by closing all the open Anomalies to create a man-made super Anomaly. (Episode 4.3, Series 5) Later on, when the Anomalies became more and more erratic in preparation for Convergence, Connor Temple theorised that Convergence would occur soon; but, unaware as Philip was, that Convergence was a temporary natural phenomenon, he feared that the Anomalies would never stop worsening and would just catastrophically keep multiplying out of control. (Episode 4.7)

The 2011 Convergence

In 2011, a Convergence finally occurred when dozens of Anomalies opened up all over the world. While the Anomaly Research Centre were forced to deal with the numerous creature incursions in England and were quickly exhausted, Philip intended to use the New Dawn Machine to stop Convergence. Despite the ARC team's efforts to stop Philip due to the destruction to all life on Earth in the future that New Dawn would wreak, New Dawn was successfully activated, causing all the non-manmade Anomalies worldwide to close before Convergence was complete. (Episode 5.5)

Other references

When the Special Projects Group's Anomaly detector detected dozens of Anomaly signals across western Canada, Toby Nance initially theorised that it was an Anomaly convergence until the team realised that most of the Anomaly blips were false signals were from equipment at hospitals and other places. (Sisiutl)

Known Convergence Anomalies

It is known that dozens of Anomalies opened on a global scale as part of Convergence when it occurred in the present.

British Isles:

• Central London - Cretaceous Anomaly
• Anomaly Research Centre Anomaly
• Infant School Anomaly
• Stanley Street Car Park Anomaly
• And many others: Achill Anomaly, Cardiff Anomaly, England Anomaly, Hattersly Anomaly, Ireland Anomaly, Manchester Anomaly, Motorway Anomaly, Scotland Anomaly, Present - Jurassic Anomaly, Wales Anomaly and Walford Anomaly.

The Americas:

• Several in the United States of America: Chicago Anomaly, Los Angeles Anomaly, New York City Anomaly, New Orleans Anomaly, Orlando Anomaly, San Francisco Anomaly and Seattle Anomaly.
• Easter Island Anomaly

Europe, Asia and Africa:

• Several in Europe: Barcelona Anomaly, Basel Anomaly, Faro Anomaly, Madrid Anomaly, Milan Anomaly, Munich Anomaly, Rome Anomaly, Scoul Anomaly, Stockholm Anomaly, Tunguska Anomaly and Zurich Anomaly.
• Several in Asia: Hong Kong Anomaly, Mumbai Anomaly and Tokyo Anomaly.
• And some in Africa: Cape Town Anomaly and Dubai Anomaly.

Trans-Tasman:

• Several in Australia: Brisbane Anomaly, Perth Anomaly and Sydney Anomaly
• New Zealand Anomaly

Real life

Convergence is a proven theory by Gary Glatzmaier that every few million years or so, there is a worldwide natural event in which the Earth's north and south magnetic poles will switch. Convergence makes no physical indication that it's happening, as we know of, other than all compasses will suddenly point south instead of north. But, as the change has never happened while Humans roamed the Earth (the last Convergence happened in the Early Pliocene and another is expected soon) then we don't really know how it happens. For such a event to happen on this scale, it would require a large amount of magnetic energy.

Trivia

• It is possible that several previously encountered Anomalies (if not all of them) reopened during convergence as some Anomalies appeared similar to others. Examples include the Motorway Anomaly and the M25 Anomaly, which both opened in similar places and both let Mammoths through.
• James Lester once speculated in Episode 1.6 that an Anomaly would one day open letting hundreds-millions of creatures out into the present day. He was almost right in predicting Convergence.
• Some fans have theorised that Convergence is the reason Anomalies open in the first place, and that when Anomalies began to open more commonly at the start of the original Primeval show, it was in preparation for Convergence in Series 5; a few fans have tried to back up this theory due to rumours that it was confirmed the cause of the Anomalies would be revealed in Series 5. Some fans have expressed doubt in this theory due to the fact that Anomalies were still regularly opening in both the UK and Canada in Primeval: New World (which is believed to chronologically take place after Series 5), but a few have suggested that Anomalies were continuing to regularly open in New World after Convergence in Episode 5.5 as an after-effect of New Dawn interrupting Convergence.
• In Episode 5.5, Lester speculated that the numerous worldwide Anomaly incursions caused by Convergence would result in the Anomalies becoming public knowledge. However, it was shown in Primeval: New World that the public was still unaware of the Anomalies. Some fans have made several theories regarding this, including that New World may take place in an alternate timeline to Series 5 of the original show, that New World may take place some time before Convergence occurred, and that it may have been that while Anomalies became public knowledge in the countries Convergence affected heavily such as the UK, in others such as Canada they did not. In an interview with Tim Haines conducted by the Anomaly Research Centre, Haines states that after Convergence occurred, the UK government decided to keep it secret in the hopes that memories of the event would be forgotten.