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 fossilisation process is not complete - are seen in the Drouzet river near Gap in the Southern French Alps in this handout photo taken in 2021. 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.
"At the time, those living on Earth would have likely first seen a bright solar flare - a flash in the sky," said Tim Heaton, a professor of applied statistics at the University of Leeds in England and one of the authors of the study published in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences journal.
"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," said Edouard Bard, a professor of climate and ocean evolution at the Collège de France and the research center CEREGE.
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.