Annual growth rings inside the ancient remains of Scots pine trees in the Southern French Alps have revealed evidence of the largest-known solar storm, one that might have fried satellites and knocked out electricity grids had it occurred today.Researchers said on Monday the solar storm - the sun sending
Subfossil Scots pine trees - tree remains whose fossilization process is not complete - are seen in the Drouzet river near Gap in the Southern French Alps in this handout photo taken in 2021. Cecile Miramont/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Earth at the time was in the grips of the last Ice Age, as human hunter-gatherers eked out a living in difficult conditions in many places around the world. Energetic solar particles would have flooded Earth's upper atmosphere, causing a chain of nuclear reactions and leading to a sudden spike in production of radiocarbon that would have been absorbed into the tissue of growing trees.
The largest directly observed solar storm, called the Carrington Event, occurred in 1859, wreaking havoc on telegraphs and creating a nighttime aurora so bright that birds sang as if the sun was rising. The one 14,300 years ago would have been something like 10 times more severe."If similar solar storms happened today, they could be catastrophic for society, as we are so reliant upon technology," Heaton said.
"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," said study co-author Cécile Miramont, a professor of paleoenvironments and paleoclimates at Aix-Marseille University in France and the research institute IMBE."Subfossil wood originates when wood is buried in an anaerobic environment, with an absence of microbial and chemical degradation.