An international team of scientists have discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago by analyzing ancient tree rings found in the French Alps.
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The radiocarbon spike was caused by a massive solar storm, the biggest ever identified.
A similar solar storm today would be catastrophic for modern technological society potentially wiping out telecommunications and satellite systems, causing massive electricity grid blackouts, and costing us billions of pounds.
The academics are warning of the importance of understanding such storms to protect our global communications and energy infrastructure for the future.
The collaborative research, which was carried out by an international team of scientists, is published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences and reveals new insights into the sun's extreme behavior and the risks it poses to Earth.
A team of researchers from the Collège de France, CEREGE, IMBE, Aix Marseille University and the University of Leeds measured radiocarbon levels in ancient trees preserved within the eroded banks of the Drouzet River, near Gap, in the Southern French Alps.
The tree trunks, which are subfossils remains whose fossilization process is not complete were sliced into tiny single tree rings.
Analysis of these individual rings identified an unprecedented spike in radiocarbon levels occurring precisely 14,300 years ago. By comparing this radiocarbon spike with measurements of beryllium, a chemical element found in Greenland ice cores, the team proposes that the spike was caused by a massive solar storm that would have ejected huge volumes of energetic particles into Earth's atmosphere.
The researchers say that the occurrence of similar massive solar storms today could be catastrophic for modern technological society, potentially wiping out telecommunications, satellite systems and electricity grids and costing us billions of pounds.
They warn that it is critical to understand the future risks of events like this, to enable us to prepare, build resilience into our communications and energy systems and shield them from potential damage. ■