The records of shifting climates are preserved by trees. The growth rings hold history and are studied. The exact ages of trees can be determined by scientists.
The effects of more distant changes are recorded.
Life is made of carbon. It forms bonds with itself and other atoms in a wide array of compounds, which is the basis of life. There are more than 10 million different compounds with carbon in them. The formula for trees is C 6 H 10 O 5.
All carbon is different. Carbon 12 ( 12 C), carbon 13 ( 13 C) and carbon 14 ( 14 C) are all carbons. The different isotopes have different numbers of neutrons. Fourteen C is a radioisotope. Scientists have been using 14C to find the ages of ancient things through radiocarbon dating since 1949.
The trees take in and excrete carbon dioxide and oxygen. There is no discrimination between the different carbons. Scientists find all three naturally occurring carbon isotopes when analyzing the chemical contents of trees' growth rings.
There is a slight decrease in the amount of 14 C in the atmosphere. By finding which tree rings have more 14 C, scientists can figure out when Earth experienced a carbon-14bump.
There is a new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. The leader of the study was Dr. Benjamin Pope from the University of QUEENS LAND.
The origins of Carbon 14 are not well known.
Cosmic rays from the Sun and other stars interact with nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere. 14 C is created by the interaction and is taken in by living things. As long as the Sun behaves normally, the amount of carbon-14 is not going to change.
When the Sun is active, it releases more energy towards Earth's atmosphere, which creates more 14 C. Since trees grow one ring at a time, each ring is a record of great activity.
Some of the Sun's behavior is not well known. The Sun creates spikes in the amount of carbon 14 in the environment. The link between tree rings and carbon 14 was used to understand Miyake Events. Special software was used in the effort.
The Miyake event is also known as the Charlemagne event. The spike is called the 774–775 carbon 14 spike. The rise in 14 C was the most significant.
According to Dr. Pope, the Miyake Events occur once every thousand years, but what causes them is unclear. They are thought to be huge solar flares.
The most powerful flare ever known was still within the Sun's capabilities. The flare might have gone largely unrecognized at the time.
If the same thing happened in our modern technological times, it would be terrible. Satellites would be the main culprit of the effects. Satellites are used for navigation and communication. These events are not taken lightly because of the risk of damage to electrical infrastructure.
If one of these happened, it would destroy technology, including satellites, internet cables, long-distance power lines and transformers. It would be impossible to affect global infrastructure.
There are tree rings at this location.
The paper was written by a math student at the University of Q.
Historical events can be observed because you can count a tree's rings to identify its age. When radiation strikes the atmosphere, it produces radioactive carbon-14, which filters through the air, oceans, Plants, and animals, and produces an annual record of radiation in tree rings.
We modeled the global carbon cycle to understand the scale and nature of the Miyake Events.
Miyake events are named after Japanese scientist Fusa Miyake, who was the first to describe them. Six Miyake Events have taken place. The oldest one took place in 7176 BC.
There is a theory that solar flares created spikes in carbon 14. Miyake and her co-authors argued that solar flares can't be blamed. The idea that solar flares are to blame is challenged by this study.
Our results challenge this. They are not correlated with sunspot activity and some last for a couple of years. Rather than a single explosion or flare, what we may be looking at is a storm.
It sounds like an astrophysical storm. Our civilization thrives because of the placid behavior of the Sun. It is troubling to find evidence of powerful events that we don't know about.
The people in 776-776 didn't know anything about radiation, carbon, or astronomy.
There was a red crucifix in the sky after sunset, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There were wonderful serpents in the land of the South-Saxons according to the same chronicle. In 776, the Chinese talked about an Aurora. There was an unusual storm in the area. Did these observations relate to the Sun?
No one is sure.
A paper looked at the spike of carbon 14. It concluded, "These events probably had no optical counterpart, and a short gamma-ray burst, giant flare of a softgamma-ray repeater or a?-ray flash could all be candidates." Nobody on Earth would notice a thing if that paper was correct.
The 14 C spikes are not related to the solar cycle. The spikes don't depend on latitude. The authors conclude that there is no clear relation between timing to the solar cycle and latitude.
The idea that atmospheric mixing could have played a role in extending the events was explored by the researchers when they realized that the events were longer than they first thought. They wondered if there was a reason for the spike.
Explanations were not satisfactory. The paper states that they don't show a consistent relationship to the solar cycle.
The spikes are long and strange. If the radionuclide production has an astrophysical origin, this will be difficult to reconcile with an impulsive production model of one large energetic particle burst.
It's a mystery at the moment. A bad one. If we don't know what they are, how can we make a prediction?
There is a one percent chance of seeing another one within the next 10 years. We don't know what to do about it.
The foundation for further research was laid by these odds.
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