Deep beneath the ice in the Earth's polar regions, researchers have found signs of an enormous solar 'tsunami' that blasted Earth's atmosphere more than 9,000 years ago. This superstorm was triggered by a wave of hot solar plasma and magnetism, and it is significantly larger than anything recorded in recent history.
The findings are disconcerting to scientists because it places doubt on the ability to predict when the Sun is going to produce the next superstorm. Destructive Solar storms occur every 25 years Or so, and most of these storms occur when the Sun's activity is at a peak, but this ancient superstorm is unprecedented in that it appears to have struck during a a solar minimum, when the sun is in its quiet phase.
In recent years, scientists have warned that we are entirely unprepared for a solar storm the size of the one that penetrated the Earth some 9000 years ago. Most alarming is the fact that experts have so far been unable to predict these rare yet disastrous events. Even more alarming is the certainty that our present infrastructure is extremely vulnerable to geomagnetic fallout.
If one of these superstorms were to strike at anytime in immediate future, it could impact satellites and astronauts in orbit, as well as air traffic control, electricity grids, and undersea cables, triggering travel limits, blackouts and global internet outages that could last for months and even years.