this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
10 points (56.2% liked)
science
14553 readers
176 users here now
just science related topics. please contribute
note: clickbait sources/headlines aren't liked generally. I've posted crap sources and later deleted or edit to improve after complaints. whoops, sry
Rule 1) Be kind.
lemmy.world rules: https://mastodon.world/about
I don't screen everything, lrn2scroll
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I had to look it up, the Carrington Event was a solar flare that impacted the entire globe and caused telegraph stations to set on fire in the 1800s. It's the biggest magnetic storm in recorded history, and would lead to global devastation if another one that size impacted Earth due to our reliance on electronics
The 2003 event produced the biggest-ever solar flare ever measured, an X45. That year, several BIG transformers exploded in South Africa. This event's biggest so is 8.7. A lot depends on where it's aimed at ... but anyway , no, we are not prepared.
Just like all storms, the geomagnetic storm scale is imperfect. It maxes out at G5, so it's possible for a substantially worse storm to be in the same category as what we saw last weekend.
Thanks for the info!