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'Thanks to Radiocarbon in Tree-Rings' Experts Learn Timing of 'Cataclysmic' Solar Storm That Hit Earth Around 2687 Years Ago

Over the years, experts have analyzed various ancient trees to find the dates of several solar storms.

PUBLISHED DEC 13, 2024

Cosmic Sunburst (Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Jackal Pan)

Scientists using their particular method of analysis have finally managed to estimate the timing of an elusive prehistoric Miyake solar storm. Experts have long used tree rings to find the dates of prehistoric solar storms on Earth, Space reported. However, many were unable to find out the dates of a particular Miyake solar storm for various reasons.

Recently a group of researchers combined tree ring data with information from ice cores to find an answer to this question. They successfully published their findings in the Communications Earth & Environment journal.

Earth and coronal mass injection, illustration - stock illustration (Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY) — Earth and coronal mass injection, illustration
(Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)

Over the years, experts have analyzed various ancient trees to find the dates of several solar storms that took place during prehistoric times. Before this particular research, experts were able to identify evidence of six colossal solar storms known as Miyake Events in the past 14,500 years. For five of them, scientists were able to pin down the exact duration, but for the one that happened in ca. 660 B.C.E., they had no answers. The study aimed at identifying the exact years in this decade when a solar storm tormented the earth.

The research was conducted by a team of professors from the University of Arizona. Fusa Miyake, who first identified the Miyake solar storm (a unique kind of cataclysmic event) also collaborated with the professors in their pursuit. The team dissected several samples of ancient wood from dead trees buried in riverbanks and timbers excavated during various digs. The researchers then burned the cellulose found in the wood to analyze the overall radiocarbon content present in it.

Variations of Δ14C concentrations measured in tree rings at ca. 660 BCE ME (a) and map showing the locations of the tree rings (b). New time series and previously published ones are color-coded. Tree-ring data locations: red-Altai Mountains and orange- Yamal Peninsula from this study; green—Japan from Sakurai et al.22; and blue—Central Europe from Park et al.10 and Rakowski et al.23. Rakowski et al. series23 shown here is excluded from the production rate modeling due to short length and missing values. The vertical line represents the 664 BCE. Although the series show some differences in Δ14C variations ca. 660 BCE ME, the spike signal is apparent as a ca. 15 ‰ increase over 2–3 years, which is sustained by high values for the next 2–3 years followed by a slow return to the average of ca. 5‰. The map was created in QGIS (3.8.0) using Google Earth imagery. (Image Source: Communications Earth & Environment.) — Variations of Δ14C concentrations measured in tree rings at ca. 660 BCE ME (a) and map showing the locations of the tree rings (b). New time series and previously published ones are color-coded. (Image Source: Communications Earth & Environment.)

The tree ring which showed a spike of radiocarbon content corresponded by researchers to spikes of isotopes like beryllium-10 in ice cores retrieved from glaciers and ice sheets. Ice cores and tree rings have been identified by experts as great reservoirs of climatic events. Similar to carbon-14, isotopes like beryllium-10 accumulate in the atmosphere due to a sudden bombardment of solar particles, a situation that happens during solar storms. The water cycle causes isotopes to become rain or precipitation, and become locked inside the ice sheets.

If both the tree ring and ice sheet indicate a blast of solar particulars at a particular time, then it is evident that a solar storm took place in that duration. The level of isotope and radiocarbon spike showcased the intensity of the solar storm in that particular period and whether it quantified as a Miyake storm.

"If ice cores from both the North Pole and the South Pole show a spike in the isotope beryllium-10 for a particular year corresponding to increased radiocarbon in tree rings, we know there was a solar storm, " Irina Panyushkina, the lead author of the study, explained.

Researchers compared the spikes they observed of radiocarbon and isotopes in their samples and found a particular duration of the cataclysmic event in ca. 660 B.C.E. According to their analysis, the Miyake storm happened between 664 and 663 B.C.E.