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A solar storm capable of wiping out Earth’s technology is ‘inevitable’ – 9News


A catastrophic solar storm capable of wiping out almost all technology on Earth is inevitable, a new report has claimed.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – bursts of highly charged particles released from the sun – could cause satellite failures, blackouts and unpredictable volcanic activity claim researchers at the US Geological Survey.

Such an event would also have dire consequences for those on life support in hospitals and for urban water supplies which largely rely on electricity.

A superflare could send Earth into darkness. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre
A superflare could send Earth into darkness. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre (Supplied)

The report examined the 1921 New York Railroad Storm – a massive geomagnetic storm that sent parts of the US into darkness – and warned a repeat event is very likely to occur in the next 100 years.

And it could happen without warning. 

“The severe space weather event of 13‐16 May 1921 produced some spectacular technological impacts, in some cases causing destructive fires,” researchers explained.

“It was characterised by extreme solar and geomagnetic variations, and spectacular aurora, recorded at many locations around the world

“The timeline of the 1921 event, including the confusion caused by prosaic faults, can be used to construct scenarios for use today by those emergency managers planning how to reduce the adverse impacts of future space weather events.”

The most famous coronal mass ejection occurred in 1859 when a geomagnetic storm sent a pulse of charged particles into Earth’s magnetosphere – it was later dubbed “The Carrington Event”.

NASA said CMEs “compressed the Earth’s magnetic field so violently that currents were created in telegraph wires so great that many wires sparked and gave telegraph operators shocks”.

“Were a Carrington-class event to impact the Earth today, speculation holds that damage might occur to global power grids and electronics on a scale never yet experienced,” explained the space agency.





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