Earth Hit by Most Powerful Solar Event 14,300 Years Ago

“Compared to the largest event of the modern satellite era — the 2005 particle storm — the ancient 12350 BC event was over 500 times more intense, according to our estimates,” Golubenko said in a press statement.

Solar particle storms are rare eruptions that shower the Earth with high-energy particles, triggering elevated levels of cosmogenic isotopes such as radiocarbon. These spikes, known as Miyake events, serve as cosmic timestamps that allow scientists to pinpoint exact years in otherwise floating archaeological chronologies.

The team validated their model using tree-ring data from the AD 775 event and applied it to newly analysed wood samples from the French Alps dating back more than 14,000 years. This approach allowed them to map the strength, timing and atmospheric impact of the 12,350 BC event—the first such extreme event found outside the Holocene, the roughly 12,000-year period of stable climate in which human civilisation emerged.

The study, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, involved researchers from Finland, France and Switzerland and was led by professor Edouard Bard of CEREGE, France.

Known historical solar particle storms occurred in AD 994, 663 BC, 5259 BC, and 7176 BC, among others. The infamous Carrington event of 1859 — often cited in space weather discussions — was not a particle storm and belongs to a different category of solar phenomena.

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