Through examinations of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, scientists discovered an intense solar 'tsunami' storm deep inside the Earth's ice.
This previously undiscovered storm, which attacked the Earth 9,200 years ago, is one of the most powerful solar weather outbursts ever measured. It would have affected current communications networks if it had happened today.
The study, "Cosmogenic Radionuclides Reveal an Extreme Solar Particle Storm Near a Solar Minimum 9125 Years BP," was done by a research team led by Lund University in Sweden and published in Nature Communications.
Extreme Solar 'Tsunami' Storm Found Within Earth's Ice
Republic World said this enormous storm seems to have occurred during a solar minimum, which is a time of the Sun's 11-year cycle when solar eruptions are significantly less common.
The researchers are concerned that deadly solar storms may occur when they are least expected due to this rare discovery.
Experts also fear that the Earth will be unprepared when the next major one arrives.
Researchers sought radioactive isotopes of beryllium-10 and chlorine-36 in ice cores when they discovered this 9200-year-old solar storm.
Furthermore, high-energy cosmic particles collided with the Earth during the enormous solar storm, forming ice cores, which retained radioactive isotopes for thousands of years.
According to LiveScience, the research authors studied many cores unearthed in Antarctica and Greenland.
Because of this surprising finding, the researchers are afraid that severe solar storms may strike when we least expect it.
They added that Earth might not be ready when the next big one arrives.
How Solar Storms Could Affect Earth
There are two types of solar storms, Syfy Wire said. A solar flare, for example, is a massive explosion on the Sun's surface that shines brightly in high-energy gamma and X-rays.
A coronal mass ejection, or CME, occurs when a large region above the Sun shoots billions of tons of subatomic particles out at millions of kilometers per hour.
Both are caused by the Sun's magnetic field, which can store enormous amounts of energy, and flares are occasionally followed by CMEs.
Both are capable of wreaking damage on the planet. A genuinely massive Sun eruption targeted directly at us would be catastrophic for our present society.
It can potentially destroy satellites, harm electronics on the ground, and cause massive power outages by bringing down the electric power system. A major storm may knock off power to vast swathes of humankind for months or longer. It would be a disaster.
Only a few storms of this magnitude have occurred in recent times. In 1989, a solar storm in Canada knocked out transformers, resulting across a power outage in Quebec. Another, known as the Carrington Event, occurred in 1859, ushering in the modern age of solar storm research.
One in 1956 was so severe that it's now used as a benchmark for calculating the consequences of storms on Earth. In 2012, the Sun ejected a genuinely huge CME that just missed the Earth.
It is no exaggeration to suggest that it might have been the greatest modern-day disaster if it had been targeted directly at us.
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