Miyake event

Sharp increase in cosmogenic isotopes

A Miyake event is an observed sharp enhancement of the production of cosmogenic isotopes by cosmic rays. It can be marked by a spike in the concentration of radioactive carbon isotope 14
C in tree rings, as well as 10
Be and 36
Cl in ice cores, which are all independently dated. At present, five significant events are known (7176 BCE, 5259 BCE, 664-663 BCE[1] (historically referred to as 660 BCE), 774 CE, 993 CE) for which the spike in 14
C is quite remarkable, i.e. above 1% rise over a period of two years, and four more events (12,350 BCE,[2] 5410 BCE, 1052 CE, 1279 CE) need independent confirmation. It is not known how often Miyake events occur, but from the available data it is estimated to be every 400 to 2,400 years.[3]

There is strong evidence that Miyake events are caused by extreme solar particle events[4][5] and they are likely related to super-flares discovered on solar-like stars.[5][6] Although Miyake events are based on extreme year-to-year rises of 14
C concentration, the duration of the periods over which the 14
C levels increase or stay at high levels is longer than one year.[7][8] However, a universal cause and origin of all the events is not yet established, and some of the events may be caused by other phenomena coming from beyond the Solar System, such as a gamma-ray burst.[9]

In 2023, the largest known Miyake event was reported between 12,350 and 12,349 BCE. It was identified by a study conducted by an international team of researchers who measured radiocarbon levels in ancient trees recovered from the eroded banks of the Drouzet River, near Gap in the Southern French Alps.[10][11][12] Although the 14
C increase was nearly double that for the next strongest spike in 774 CE, the strength of the corresponding solar event was only 18 % higher, because of the combined effect of the lower atmospheric CO2 level and weaker geomagnetic field [13] However, the event has not yet been independently confirmed in wood from other regions, nor it is reliably supported by a clear corresponding spike in other isotopes, such as beryllium-10, that are needed to reconstruct the spectrum of solar energetic particles.[8]

A Miyake event occurring in modern conditions might have significant impacts on global technological infrastructure such as satellites, telecommunications, and power grids.[8][14][15]

## Discovery

[edit]

The events are named after the Japanese physicist Fusa Miyake who, as a doctoral student, was the first one to identify these radiocarbon spikes and published the results with co-authors in 2012 in the journal Nature.[16] The investigation at that time found a strong 14
C increase in the annual rings of Japanese cedars for the years 774/775. The event of 775 was independently discovered, using the low-resolution IntCal data.[17]

In 2013, Miyake and co-authors published the discovery of another similar radiocarbon spike in the years 993/994.[18] In December 2013, Miyake received her Doctor of Science degree from Nagoya University.[19]

## Time benchmark

[edit]

After a Miyake event is well-studied and confirmed, it can serve as a reference time benchmark, a "year-stamp", enabling more precise dating of historical buildings, objects, and events. Six diverse historical occurrences, from archaeological sites to natural disasters, have thus been dated to a specific year, using Miyake events as benchmarks and counting tree rings.[20] For example, wooden construction elements from the Viking archaeological site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland were dated by identifying the 14
C spike of 993 CE in a sequence of tree-rings, which showed that the wood is from a tree felled in 1021 CE, thus definitely confirming Viking presence in the Americas at least before 1021 CE.[21] Another study performed on the tree-rings of wooden building remains from the  Neolithic waterlogged site of Dispilio in north-western Greece, identified the Miyake event of 5259 BC, thus for a first time absolutely dating a Neolithic site in Europe from the 6th millennium BC to a single calendar year.[22]

## See also

[edit]

* Carrington Event
* Coronal mass ejection
* Dendrochronology
* Geomagnetic storm
* Solar storm

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Panyushkina, Irina P.; Jull, A. J. Timothy; Molnár, Mihaly; Varga, Tamás; Kontul’, Ivan; Hantemirov, Rashit; Kukarskih, Vladymir; Sljusarenko, Igor; Myglan, Vladymir; Livina, Valerie (23 August 2024). "The timing of the ca-660 BCE Miyake solar-proton event constrained to between 664 and 663 BCE". Communications Earth & Environment. 5 (1): 1–9\. doi:10.1038/s43247-024-01618-x. ISSN 2662-4435. PMC 11343717.
2. ^ Kirby, Jane (9 October 2023). "Biggest ever solar storm identified using ancient tree rings". The Independent. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
3. ^ Brehm, Nicolas; Christl, Marcus; Knowles, Timothy D. J.; Casanova, Emmanuelle; Evershed, Richard P.; Adolphi, Florian; et al. (7 March 2022). "Tree-rings reveal two strong solar proton events in 7176 and 5259 BCE". Nature Communications. 13 (1): 1196. Bibcode:2022NatCo..13.1196B. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28804-9. PMC 8901681. PMID 35256613.
4. ^ Usoskin, I. G.; Kromer, B.; Ludlow, F.; Beer, J.; Friedrich, F.; Kovaltsov, G.; Solanki, S.; Wacker, L. (2013). "The AD775 cosmic event revisited: the Sun is to blame". Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters. 552: L3. arXiv:1302.6897. Bibcode:2013A&A...552L...3U. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201321080.
5. ^ a b Cliver, Edward W.; Schrijver, Carolus; Shibata, Kazunari; Usoskin, Ilya G. (2022). "Extreme solar events". Living Reviews in Solar Physics. 19 (1): 2. arXiv:2205.09265. Bibcode:2022LRSP...19....2C. doi:10.1007/s41116-022-00033-8.
6. ^ Maehara, Hiroyuki; Shibayama, Takuya; Notsu, Shota; Notsu, Yuta; Nagao, Takashi; Kusaba, Satoshi; Honda, Satoshi; Nogami, Daisaku; Shibata, Kazunari (May 2012). "Superflares on solar-type stars". Nature. 485 (7399): 478–481\. Bibcode:2012Natur.485..478M. doi:10.1038/nature11063. PMID 22622572.
7. ^ Zhang, Qingyuan; Sharma, Utkarsh; Dennis, Jordan A.; Scifo, Andrea; Kuitems, Margot; Büntgen, Ulf; Owens, Mathew J.; Dee, Michael W.; Pope, Benjamin J. S. (October 2022). "Modelling cosmic radiation events in the tree-ring radiocarbon record". Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 478 (2266). arXiv:2210.13775. Bibcode:2022RSPSA.47820497Z. doi:10.1098/rspa.2022.0497.
8. ^ a b c Miyake, Fusa; Usoskin, Ilya; Poluianov, Stepan, eds. (2019). Extreme Solar Particle Storms. doi:10.1088/2514-3433/ab404a. ISBN 978-0-7503-2232-4.[page needed]
9. ^ Kornei, Katherine (6 March 2023). "Mystery of Ancient Space Superstorms Deepens". Scientific American.
10. ^ Alex Wilkins (9 October 2023). "Largest known solar storm struck Earth 14,300 years ago". New Scientist. 260 (3460): 9. Bibcode:2023NewSc.260Q...9W. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(23)01892-4.
11. ^ Bard, Edouard; et al. (9 October 2023). "A radiocarbon spike at 14 300 cal yr BP in subfossil trees provides the impulse response function of the global carbon cycle during the Late Glacial". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. 381 (2261). Bibcode:2023RSPTA.38120206B. doi:10.1098/rsta.2022.0206. PMC 10586540. PMID 37807686.
12. ^ "Largest Ever Solar Storm Identified in Ancient Tree Rings – Could Devastate Modern Technology and Cost Billions". SciTechDaily. 9 October 2023. Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
13. ^ Golubenko, Kseniia; Usoskin, Ilya; Rozanov, Eugene; Bard, Edourad. "New SOCOL:14C-Ex model reveals that the Late-Glacial radiocarbon spike in 12350 BC was caused by the record-strong extreme solar storm". Earth Planetary Science Letters. 661: 119383. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119383.
14. ^ Brehm, Nicolas; Christl, Marcus; Knowles, Timothy D. J.; Casanova, Emmanuelle; Evershed, Richard P.; Adolphi, Florian; Muscheler, Raimund; Synal, Hans-Arno; Mekhaldi, Florian; Paleari, Chiara I.; Leuschner, Hanns-Hubert; Bayliss, Alex; Nicolussi, Kurt; Pichler, Thomas; Schlüchter, Christian; Pearson, Charlotte L.; Salzer, Matthew W.; Fonti, Patrick; Nievergelt, Daniel; Hantemirov, Rashit; Brown, David M.; Usoskin, Ilya; Wacker, Lukas (7 March 2022). "Tree-rings reveal two strong solar proton events in 7176 and 5259 BCE". Nature Communications. 13 (1): 1196. Bibcode:2022NatCo..13.1196B. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28804-9. PMC 8901681. PMID 35256613.
15. ^ Cosmic-ray Research Division (17 November 2021). "Radiocarbon (14C)". Nagoya, Japan: Institute for Space–Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University. Archived from the original on 29 May 2024. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
16. ^ Miyake, Fusa; Nagaya, Kentaro; Masuda, Kimiaki; Nakamura, Toshio (14 June 2012). "A signature of cosmic-ray increase in ad 774–775 from tree rings in Japan". Nature. 486 (7402): 240–242\. Bibcode:2012Natur.486..240M. doi:10.1038/nature11123. PMID 22699615.
17. ^ Usoskin, Ilya; Kovaltsov, Gennady (2012). "Occurrence of Extreme Solar Particle Events: Assessment from Historical Proxy Data". Astrophysical Journal. 757 (1): 92. arXiv:1207.5932. Bibcode:2012ApJ...757...92U. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/757/1/92.
18. ^ Miyake, Fusa; Masuda, Kimiaki; Nakamura, Toshio (2013). "Another rapid event in the carbon-14 content of tree rings". Nature Communications. 4: 1748. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.1748M. doi:10.1038/ncomms2783. PMID 23612289. S2CID 256624509.
19. ^ "Faculty Profiles: MIYAKE Fusa". Nagoya University. Archived from the original on 14 October 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2023. "Degree: 博士（理学）（ 2013.12 名古屋大学 ）"
20. ^ Price, Michael (13 April 2023). "Marking time: Cosmic ray storms can pin precise dates on history from ancient Egypt to the Vikings". Science. doi:10.1126/science.adi2040.
21. ^ Kuitems, Margot; Wallace, Birgitta L.; Lindsay, Charles; Scifo, Andrea; Doeve, Petra; Jenkins, Kevin; Lindauer, Susanne; Erdil, Pınar; Ledger, Paul M.; Forbes, Véronique; Vermeeren, Caroline; Friedrich, Ronny; Dee, Michael W. (20 January 2022). "Evidence for European presence in the Americas in ad 1021". Nature. 601 (7893): 388–391\. Bibcode:2022Natur.601..388K. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03972-8. PMC 8770119. PMID 34671168. S2CID 239051036.
22. ^ Maczkowski, Andrej; Pearson, Charlotte; Francuz, John; Giagkoulis, Tryfon; Szidat, Sönke; Wacker, Lukas; Bolliger, Matthias; Kotsakis, Kostas; Hafner, Albert (20 May 2024). "Absolute dating of the European Neolithic using the 5259 BC rapid 14C excursion". Nature Communications. 15 (1): 4263. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-48402-1. PMC 11106086. PMID 38769301.

## External links

[edit]

* Researchers succeed for first time in accurately dating a 7,000-year-old prehistoric settlement using cosmic rays – May 21, 2024 – University of Bern
* "Young Researcher in the Spotlight: Fusa Miyake at the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory". Nagoya University. 27 May 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
* Carlson, Erika K. (29 May 2020). "Sun's Past Hidden in Tree Rings • Physicist Fusa Miyake measures isotope abundances in ancient tree rings to uncover solar eruptions from thousands of years ago". Physics. 13. Physics 13, 78: 78. Retrieved 17 October 2023. "Q&A"
* "José A. Boninsegna Frontiers in Dendrochronology Award was given to Associate Professor Fusa Miyake". Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University. 26 July 2022. Retrieved 17 October 2023.