Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
comes clear that North America has been struck by a powerful solar storm that induced
massive wire-melting currents in hundreds of the large power-station transformers across
America that are absolutely critical for keeping the electric power grid functioning. Not all of
the transformers and electrical devices in North America were fried, but enough damage oc-
curred that the massively interconnected grid failed across the entire continent.
Does this scenario sound far-fetched, like it came out of some apocalyptic 2012 end-of-the-
world Hollywood extravaganza? According to two major scientific government reports,
Severe
Space Weather Events: Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts
, and the
Report of the
Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) At-
tack
, either severe solar storms or a nuclear detonation purposefully designed to create an EMP
could generate such an effect. Considering the fact that some of the critical large electrical
components within our electrical power-grid structure are no longer manufactured within the
United States, and that the lead times on these expensive custom-made items are running one to
three years, severe damage or loss of a number of these items, whether through a coordinated
terrorist act, solar super storm, or EMP, could have devastating long-term consequences for our
infrastructure, quality of life, and the economy.
So, how likely are these kinds of events? In March of 1989, a severe solar storm induced
powerful electric currents in grid wiring that fried a main power transformer in the HydroQue-
bec system, causing a cascading grid failure that knocked out power to 6 million customers for
nine hours. More recently, in 2003 a solar storm caused a blackout in Sweden and induced
powerful currents in the South African grid that burned up fourteen of their major power trans-
formers, blacking out power to significant portions of that country for many months (Joseph
2010). In May of 1921, a great geomagnetic storm produced ground currents roughly ten times
as strong as the Quebec incident, affecting the Northern Hemisphere as far south as Mexico and
Puerto Rico, and the Southern Hemisphere as far north as Samoa. It has been estimated that if
an event like that one occurred today, in the United States alone it would put over 350 main
grid transformers at risk of serious damage, potentially knocking out power to over 130 million
people.
However, the great-granddaddy solar storm of recorded history is the 1859 “Carrington
Event.” During this storm, Northern Lights were seen as far south as Cuba and Hawaii,
awakened hikers in the middle of the night in the Rocky Mountains because the lights were so
bright they thought it was dawn, and induced currents in copper wires so powerful that tele-
