The sun has a temper that it can unleash in the form of solar storms, which can cause serious damage to satellites, internet and gps on earth.
With all the destruction these fiery tantrums are capable of, could they cause a disaster?
The answer is not direct. There needs to be an earthquake below the ocean floor that causes a huge wave through the entire water column to be unleashed on Earth. The same type of plate movement causes volcanoes to erupt and cities to shake. It may seem terrifying to get blasted by a solar flare or a giant cloud of charged particles from the sun, but it's actually possible.
There is a question about whether a solar storm could destroy Earth.
Some researchers think that solar storms may cause waves on Earth.
According to NASA, solar storms can cause "solar tsunamis" that wreak havoc on the sun instead of Earth. The Moreton wave was powerful enough to heat up hydrogen and other gases in the sun until the whole star was burning brighter. In minutes, this happened.
In a study published in the journal Nature, a team of researchers found out that some solar eruptions can leave their mark on Earth, and that they were able to find evidence of a solar eruption that hit the island over 9000 years ago. Particles that had been swept in with the solar wind were trapped in ice core and examined in a lab. This particular major event did not cause a wave, but a study in 2020 suggested a link between solar storms and earthquakes.
The University of Basilicata in Potenzo, Italy wrote in the study that they found evidence for a high correlation between large worldwide earthquakes and the protons density near the magnetosphere. For future implications on earthquake forecast, this result is very important.
When the magnetic fields on the sun tangle or break, solar storms can occur. Both explode and send huge amounts of energy into the sky. According to NASA, when charged particles in solar winds reach Earth and interact with the ionosphere, they can cause satellite and gps signals to glitch. An interaction with the magnetosphere could be more than that. The ionosphere is closer to the earth than the magnetosphere. The area in space surrounding the planet with the strongest magnetic fields is shaped by the sun's wind.
The intensity of earthquakes could be affected by particles in the solar wind. The researchers think these particles could be associated with the movement of plates because of their electricity. They thought that the more protons were in the solar wind, the more likely they were to cause earthquakes and cause waves in the ocean.
Marchitelli's study didn't look at the number of tsunamis in periods of high and low solar wind, so this idea is still very much an idea.
More people are supporting this thinking. According to a study published in the journal Scientific Research, earthquakes increased during the solar maximum, the stretch of time during the sun's 11-year cycle when it is most active and most likely to release blasts of solar wind. The extra pressure on the crust could be caused by the magnetic field being pushed against the plates.
These findings are controversial at the moment. According to the rebuttal published in Scientific Research, a relationship between earthquakes and solar storms can't be proven yet.
They wrote that the influence of the solar activity on earthquakes is an elusive phenomenon.
Solar storms, which are more frightening near the sun than on Earth, don't cause waves on the planet. Regardless of the activity of the solar wind, the activity of the tectonics continues. It's not clear whether the particles released by solar winds can exert any force on plate tectonics.
The original article was published on Live Science.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
