Scientists at the University of Oulu in Finland have uncovered what they believe is a 14300-year-old solar storm — the most powerful one documented so far. They analysed carbon-14 from preserved fossil tree rings and simulated Earth’s upper atmosphere using a chemistry-climate model under ice-age conditions. The storm appears to have 500 times the power of the Halloween solar storm of 2003, which was larger and more orientated than any of the largest Space Age storms. This is an ideal opportunity to get a snapshot of how extreme space weather events affect Earth currently.
14,300-Year-Old Solar Storm Was the Strongest Ever, Reveals New Tree Ring Radiocarbon Study
As per a study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters on May 15, the event occurred between January and April of 12,350 BC, during the waning years of the last Ice Age. And the weather event unleashed about 18 per cent more high-energy particles in Earth’s atmosphere than the previous largest known storm in the Holocene, in 775 AD. Lead author Kseniia Golubenko mentioned that this is the only known extreme solar event from before the Holocene epoch, and in the study, provided a new plan for radiocarbon anomalies observed in glacial climate trends.
Now, scientists have found an enormous spike in carbon-14, a rare radioactive isotope, also produced by the cosmic rays: evidence that the sun recently let loose a massive particle event. It was a finding prompted by a new model that examines radiocarbon data from past climate eras. The spike, in 2023, prompted them to examine the size of the storm more closely.
The storm, in 12,350 B.C., was probably prompted by a solar event that would have created an aurora borealis that sparkled across the skies of the Ice Age, something that would have appealed to early humans. Past radiocarbon spikes were also linked with grand sun cycles in bygone centuries.
Today’s tech-driven world faces an outsize risk from solar storms, with a 14,000-year-old solar storm setting our computerised world up for disaster. The event may cause catastrophic damage to infrastructure and paralyse modern systems, signalling the need for preparedness in the tech era. There were already mass disruptions from previous storms.
