{"id":379725,"date":"2025-05-24T19:11:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T17:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379725"},"modified":"2025-05-24T19:11:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T17:11:42","slug":"trees-remember-an-ice-age-solar-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379725","title":{"rendered":"Trees Remember an Ice Age Solar\u00a0Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
ChatGPT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Spaceweather.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Dr.Tony Phillips<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 21, 2025:<\/strong>\u00a0(Spaceweather.com<\/a>) More than 14 thousand years ago, there was a solar storm so big, trees still remember it. Dwarfing modern solar storms, the event would devastate technology if it happened again today. Spoiler alert: It could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Above: Subfossil trees along the banks of the Drouzet river in France [ref<\/a>]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The record-strong storm is described by a paper<\/a> in the upcoming July 2025 edition of the peer-reviewed journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters<\/em>. It occured in 12,350 BC and is classified as a \u201cMiyake Event<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miyake Events are solar storms that make the Carrington Event of 1859 look puny. Trees \u201cremember\u201d them in their rings, which store the carbon-14 created by gargantuan storms. At least six Miyake Events have been discovered and confirmed since Fusa Miyake found the first one in 2012. The list so far includes 664-663 BC, 774 AD, 993 AD, 5259 BC, 7176 BC, and 12,350 BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Miyake Event of 12,350 BC is especially intriguing. It appears as a carbon-14 spike<\/a> in Scots Pine trees along the banks of the Drouzet river in France, with a matching beryllium-10 spike in Greenland ice cores. The event was global and, based on the size of the spikes, very big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, no one could say how big the storm was because it happened during the Ice Age<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Carbon-14 storage is complicated. When a solar storm creates carbon-14 in the upper atmosphere, the radioisotope doesn\u2019t immediately appear in the woody flesh of trees. Getting there involves months to years of atmospheric circulation influenced by climate and geography, and even then the carbon-14 has to arrive during the tree\u2019s growing season, otherwise it won\u2019t be \u201ctaken up.\u201d High-altitude trees are favored because they encounter the carbon-14 first, while different species each have their own sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these factors are a harder to tease out in the Ice Age. Most known Miyake Events occurred after<\/em> the Ice Age, during the Holocene, a period of relatively stable and warm climate starting about 12,000 years ago. Climate scientists have atmospheric circulation models for the Holocene, so interpreting Miyake Events in 7176 BC, 5259 BC, 664-663 BC, 993 AD, 774 AD was relatively straightforward. Not so, the event of 12,350 BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To solve this problem, Kseniia Golubenko and Ilya Usoskin from the University of Oulu in Finland developed a chemistry-climate model (SOCOL:14C-Ex) specifically for Ice Age solar storms. It takes into account ice sheet boundaries, sea levels, and geomagnetic fields that existed during the Pleistocene\u2019s Late Glacial period. Using this model, they were able to interpret tree ring data for 12,350 BC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to their paper<\/a>, 12,350 BC is the biggest Miyake Event yet.  It produced a hailstorm of solar particles 500 times greater than the most intense solar particle storm recorded by modern satellites in 2005. During the 2005 event, an airline passenger flying over the poles might have received a year\u2019s worth of sea-level cosmic radiation in just one hour. During the 12350 BC event, the same dose would have been received in a mere eight seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would seem to set a new standard for worst-case scenarios in space weather. However, the real news is deeper: The door to the Ice Age has been kicked open by SOCOL:14C-Ex. Older tree rings may now be interpreted with confidence, potentially revealing even worse storms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned for more news from the trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 14 thousand years ago, there was a solar storm so big, trees still remember it. Dwarfing modern solar storms, the event would devastate technology if it happened again today. Spoiler alert: It could.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":379732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691835285,691819118,691825643,691818192,691825511,691825403,691835286,691818694],"class_list":["post-379725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-earth-and-planetary-science-letters","tag-france","tag-greenland-ice-cores","tag-holocene","tag-ice-age","tag-miyake-events","tag-solar-storm","tag-trees","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-24.-Mai-2025-19_10_17.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1AMB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":291600,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=291600","url_meta":{"origin":379725,"position":0},"title":"Catastrophic and Frightening Solar Storms: Miyake Events","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/17\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Miyake events are believed to be several orders of magnitude greater than the Carrington Event. It is not clear what causes the event.","rel":"","context":"In \"1300 years ago\"","block_context":{"text":"1300 years ago","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=1300-years-ago"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0New-evidence-shows-massive-solar-storms-in-Earths-history.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0New-evidence-shows-massive-solar-storms-in-Earths-history.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0New-evidence-shows-massive-solar-storms-in-Earths-history.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0New-evidence-shows-massive-solar-storms-in-Earths-history.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0New-evidence-shows-massive-solar-storms-in-Earths-history.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":283698,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=283698","url_meta":{"origin":379725,"position":1},"title":"Tree Rings Reveal Largest Solar Storm EVAH!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/17\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Big sun eruption - Elements of this image furnished by NASA The largest known\u00a0solar storm\u00a0struck Earth more than 14,000 years ago, according to a new study of the growth rings in ancient trees. Why it matters:\u00a0The discovery illustrates the immense power of\u00a0solar storms\u00a0\u2014 and underscores the danger they pose today.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"14300 years ago\"","block_context":{"text":"14300 years ago","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=14300-years-ago"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-storm_earth_1medium.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-storm_earth_1medium.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-storm_earth_1medium.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-storm_earth_1medium.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-storm_earth_1medium.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":261155,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=261155","url_meta":{"origin":379725,"position":2},"title":"How Big was Carrington\u2019s Sunspot?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"If you want to have a bit of fun with ChatGPT, ask it the following question:\u00a0\u201cHow big was Carrington\u2019s sunspot?","rel":"","context":"In \"1859\"","block_context":{"text":"1859","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=1859"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0og_drawing_crop2-1.webp?fit=1024%2C485&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0og_drawing_crop2-1.webp?fit=1024%2C485&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0og_drawing_crop2-1.webp?fit=1024%2C485&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0og_drawing_crop2-1.webp?fit=1024%2C485&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":278735,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=278735","url_meta":{"origin":379725,"position":3},"title":"\u201cStealthy CME\u201d Sparks Geomagnetic\u00a0Storm","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/14\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"(Spaceweather.com) An unexpected CME\u00a0hit\u00a0Earth\u2019s magnetic field on Sept. 12th (1237 UT) and sparked a\u00a0G2-class geomagnetic storm. Magnetically, the CME remained\u00a0connected to our planet\u00a0for more than 13 hours, allowing plasma from the CME\u2019s wake to enter Earth\u2019s magnetosphere. This fueled a display of auroras photographed as far south as\u00a0Missouri\u00a0(+40.2N) and\u00a0Nebraska\u00a0(+40.9N).","rel":"","context":"In \"CME\"","block_context":{"text":"CME","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=cme"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Matthew-Merrell-9-12-1_1694615910.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Matthew-Merrell-9-12-1_1694615910.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Matthew-Merrell-9-12-1_1694615910.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Matthew-Merrell-9-12-1_1694615910.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/00Matthew-Merrell-9-12-1_1694615910.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":299094,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=299094","url_meta":{"origin":379725,"position":4},"title":"Solar Protons Are Raining Down on\u00a0Earth","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/30\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Energetic protons from the sun are striking the top of Earth\u2019s atmosphere today following a strong solar flare during the early hours of Jan. 29th. This is called a \u201cradiation storm,\u201d and it is currently a category\u00a0S2\u00a0event.","rel":"","context":"In \"Earth\u2019s atmosphere\"","block_context":{"text":"Earth\u2019s atmosphere","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=earths-atmosphere"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-30-162148.png?fit=1200%2C864&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-30-162148.png?fit=1200%2C864&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-30-162148.png?fit=1200%2C864&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-30-162148.png?fit=1200%2C864&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/00Screenshot-2024-01-30-162148.png?fit=1200%2C864&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":270015,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=270015","url_meta":{"origin":379725,"position":5},"title":"A Strong Farside CME Just Hit Solar\u00a0Orbiter","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/28\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"On July 24th, a bright CME rocketed away from the farside of the sun. Its plane-of-sky speed in SOHO coronagraph images exceeded 1,500 km\/s (3.4 million mph)","rel":"","context":"In \"CME\"","block_context":{"text":"CME","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=cme"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00Screenshot-2023-07-28-185915.png?fit=835%2C836&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00Screenshot-2023-07-28-185915.png?fit=835%2C836&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00Screenshot-2023-07-28-185915.png?fit=835%2C836&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00Screenshot-2023-07-28-185915.png?fit=835%2C836&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379725"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379734,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379725\/revisions\/379734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/379732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}