Monday, June 18, 2018

Feds: 300-Million-Year-Old Colossus Threatens the Grid (Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy)


(WASHINGTON, DC) -- A giant slab of stone that stretches along the eastern seaboard would be calamitous to the electrical grid if a major solar flared smacked the Earth, a forthcoming government report is expected to say.

The sleeper awakens: The soon-to-be-released report by the U.S. Geological Survey found a 300-million-year-old rock beneath the surface of the eastern seaboard could serve to amplify the effects for the next big solar storm, Bloomberg is reporting.

Rock of ages: The rock extends beneath the surface of the Earth from Washington to Maine.

Bounce back: The makeup of the rock would cause the solar energy from a storm to ricochet back to the surface instead of being absorb by the soil, doubling the impact in the region.

Active problem: "It’s an active problem that a lot of people are trying to solve and understand," Space Weather Prediction Center scientist Christopher Balch told Bloomberg.

Blackouts: It is believed that the type of geomagnetic storm capable of obliterating the electricity grid happens once every century, but a worst-case scenario might result in widespread blackouts that could last for months, the Space Weather Prediction Center told Bloomberg.