To be clear, we’re talking about a once-in-a-century kind of solar storm. Unfortunately, though, there’s a decent chance that one of these storms could occur within the next two decades. If it does, it could be enough to cause months-long Internet outages in some places. The last one was in 1921, but luckily infrastructure at the time wasn’t nearly as interconnected as we are today, so the results weren’t nearly as catastrophic as what we’d see.
What kind of storm could cause an ‘Internet apocalypse’?
Answer: A major solar storm.
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Major storms that originate on Earth aren’t the only danger to our modern infrastructure. According to Dr. Sangeetha Jyothi, a professor at the University of California Irvine, a major solar storm could cause enough damage to our infrastructure to create an “Internet apocalypse.”
To be clear, we’re talking about a once-in-a-century kind of solar storm. Unfortunately, though, there’s a decent chance that one of these storms could occur within the next two decades. If it does, it could be enough to cause months-long Internet outages in some places. The last one was in 1921, but luckily infrastructure at the time wasn’t nearly as interconnected as we are today, so the results weren’t nearly as catastrophic as what we’d see.
Not all areas would be affected the same — a solar storm disrupts the Earth’s magnetic field, so areas closer to the planet’s magnetic poles would be at greater risk of more significant damage. Most likely, parts of the world — North America, for example — would end up experiencing blackouts and be cut off from the rest of the world. And these blackouts could last for months, depending on the severity of the damage. Internet apocalypse indeed.
To be clear, we’re talking about a once-in-a-century kind of solar storm. Unfortunately, though, there’s a decent chance that one of these storms could occur within the next two decades. If it does, it could be enough to cause months-long Internet outages in some places. The last one was in 1921, but luckily infrastructure at the time wasn’t nearly as interconnected as we are today, so the results weren’t nearly as catastrophic as what we’d see.
