An international team of scientists has detected evidence of biggest solar storm already documented. These results arrived through the analysis of ancient tree rings in the French Alps regions.
The data obtained from the research were recently published in the journal Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.
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These rings revealed a significant increase in radiocarbon levels dating back to approximately 14,300 years ago. In this era, the world was going through a period geological known as the end of the Pleistocene period.
(Image: Shutterstock/reproduction)
This was one of the last phases of the last ice age. There were, therefore, a number of distinct characteristics in terms of climate, geography and life on Earth.
If this event were to occur today, it would have devastating consequences, with the potential to render the telecommunications systems and satellites, causing large-scale blackouts in the electrical grid and generating losses billionaires.
Scientists analyzed the rings of trees on the eroded banks of the Drouzet River, which are classified as subfossils due to the incomplete fossilization process.
The researchers indicate that this increase in radiocarbon may have been caused by a vast solar storm, which potentially released large amounts of energetic particles into the atmosphere.
This deduction was obtained by comparing the increase in radiocarbon levels with measurements of beryllium, a chemical element present in ice cores from Greenland.
According to Edouard Bard, professor of Climate and Oceanic Evolution at the Collège de France and main author of the study, the Radiocarbon is constantly generated in Earth's upper atmosphere through a sequence of reactions initiated by lightning cosmic.
Recently, scientists discovered that extreme solar events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections can also cause short-lived bursts of energetic particles, resulting in substantial spikes in radiocarbon production over just one year.
Through the technique of dendrochronology, using tree rings, scientists constructed a timeline that provided valuable information about environmental changes in the past.
Consequently, this allowed the measurement of radiocarbon levels during a previously unexplored period of intense solar activity.
Currently, extreme solar storms can trigger massive blackouts, cause persistent damage to satellites, and pose serious radiation exposure risks for astronauts.
This assessment is highlighted by Tim Heaton, professor of Applied Statistics at the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom, who participated in the study.
Finally, the researchers identified a solar storm from 14,300 years ago, more intense than known events, such as the Miyake Events that occurred in 993 d. W. and 774 d. W. and even more intense than the famous Carrington Event of 1859.
However, there is still much to learn about solar behavior and how to prevent such extreme solar storms, but radiocarbon analysis is a valuable tool for understanding Earth's history and managing future scratchs.
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