Ancient Tree Rings in French Alps Reveal Massive Solar Storm That Could Have Crippled Modern Technology
Ancient Scots pine trees in the Southern French Alps have unveiled evidence of the most extensive solar storm ever recorded, one that, if it occurred today, might have wreaked havoc on satellites and electricity grids.
Researchers reported on Monday that this solar storm, characterized by a significant burst of energetic particles from the sun, transpired approximately 14,300 years ago. The evidence of this event surfaced as a remarkable spike in radiocarbon, a carbon isotope, detected within the growth rings of ancient tree remnants located near the Drouzet River, close to the town of Gap.
At that time, Earth was in the midst of the last Ice Age, with human hunter-gatherer communities struggling to survive in challenging environments around the world.
Tim Heaton, a professor of applied statistics at the University of Leeds in England and one of the study’s authors, explained, “At the time, those living on Earth would have likely first seen a bright solar flare – a flash in the sky. Then several hours later, they likely would have seen a huge aurora in the sky that would extend much further towards the equator than current auroras. They wouldn’t have noticed the high-energy particles or been aware that they were experiencing a geomagnetic disturbance.”
Energetic solar particles would have inundated Earth’s upper atmosphere, initiating a series of nuclear reactions resulting in a sudden surge in radiocarbon production, which would have been absorbed into the tissue of growing trees.
Edouard Bard, a professor of climate and ocean evolution at the Collège de France and the research center CEREGE, stated, “About 10 years ago, scientists discovered that extreme solar events including solar flares and coronal mass ejections can create short-term bursts of energetic particles that can create spikes in radiocarbon production occurring over the course of a single year.”
Nine such extreme solar storms have now been identified through tree-ring radiocarbon evidence, with the most recent occurring in 774 and 993 AD.
The largest directly observed solar storm, known as the Carrington Event, transpired in 1859, causing disruptions in telegraphs and generating a nighttime aurora so intense that birds sang as if it were dawn. The solar storm from 14,300 years ago would have been approximately ten times more severe.
The repercussions of solar storms can incapacitate electronic devices.
“If similar solar storms happened today, they could be catastrophic for society, as we are so reliant upon technology,” Heaton cautioned. “They could do enormous damage to our electricity grids, potentially causing nationwide blackouts lasting months, permanently putting satellites out of action with the huge bursts of energetic particles destroying their solar panels and stopping us from communicating with them, and pose severe radiation risks to astronauts and aviation. In the worst-case scenario, the impact could cost us billions, or even trillions, of dollars in lost GDP.”
The trees, buried at the conclusion of the last glacial period, had started to fossilize but still preserved organic material.
Cécile Miramont, a co-author of the study and a professor of paleoenvironments and paleoclimates at Aix-Marseille University in France and the research institute IMBE, explained, “The good preservation of the trunks and their in-life position – still rooted, with pieces of bark remaining – indicate that the trees were rather quickly buried.”
The researchers validated their findings by identifying a corresponding spike in another chemical isotope within Greenland ice cores dating to the same year.
Heaton concluded, “We do not know what causes such extreme solar storms to occur, how frequently they might occur, or if we can predict them. This is the big question: will our communications, electricity grids, and satellites mostly be able to withstand their impacts and just suffer temporary effects before quickly coming back online? Or will they catastrophically fail?”
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