Scientists discover 14000-year-old solar storm which was so powerful that it could fry modern technology in seconds
Throughout history, our planet has been bombarded by solar storms, in the form of bursts of charged particles from the Sun that interact with Earth's magnetic field. Today as most of the world is dependent on technology and signals, even relatively mild space weather can disrupt satellites, power grids, and communications systems.
But what if the worst is yet to be discovered, not in the future, but hidden in our distant past?
In recent decades, scientists have grown increasingly interested in ancient solar activity. Unlike short-term observations from satellites, nature provides its own long-term record keepers, like tree rings and ice cores. These natural archives hold clues about the Sun's behaviour over thousands of years.
Such discoveries not only help us understand our star's historical tantrums but also prepare us for the possibility of future solar storms that could cause massive disruptions to modern technology.
The latest discovery has shocked the researchers. Evidence now points to a colossal solar storm that hit Earth over 14,000 years ago, and that storm was possibly far stronger than anything previously recorded, and powerful enough to severely impact today's global infrastructure if it were to happen again.
In a study to be published in the July 2025 issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, researchers reveal that a solar storm around 12,350 BC left a dramatic carbon signature still visible today.
This event, known as a "Miyake Event", named after Japanese physicist Fusa Miyake, who first identified such spikes in 2012, surpasses even the infamous 1859 Carrington Event, long considered the most intense solar storm in recorded history.
Miyake Events are characterized by sudden surges in carbon-14, a radioactive isotope created when solar particles bombard Earth's atmosphere. This latest event was identified through tree ring samples from Scots Pines growing along the Drouzet River in France.
The carbon-14 spike was validated by elevated beryllium-10 levels found in Greenland ice cores, indicating a truly global phenomenon.
What sets this event apart, besides its sheer scale, is the timing. Occurring during the Ice Age, when Earth's atmospheric and magnetic conditions differed massively from today, and the signals were harder to interpret. To overcome this, scientists Kseniia Golubenko and Ilya Usoskin of the University of Oulu in Finland developed a specialized chemistry-climate model that accounted for ancient variables like sea levels, ice sheet positions, and geomagnetic fields.
Their analysis revealed that this ancient solar storm unleashed a solar particle barrage 500 times stronger than the most intense storm recorded by satellites in 2005.
As Usoskin explained, 'During the 2005 event, a passenger flying over the poles might have received a year's worth of cosmic radiation in one hour; during the Ice Age event, the same dose would have been delivered in just eight seconds.'
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