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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: Repeat of 1859 Carrington Event would devastate modern world, experts say. ?B?

By Glenn Reynolds

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: Repeat of 1859 Carrington Event would devastate modern world, experts say. “But the big fear is what might happen to the electrical grid, since power surges caused by solar particles could blow out giant transformers. Such transformers can take a long time to replace, especially if hundreds are destroyed at once, said Baker, who is a co-author of a National Research Council report on solar-storm risks. . . . The eastern half of the U.S. is particularly vulnerable, because the power infrastructure is highly interconnected, so failures could easily cascade like chains of dominoes.” Perhaps we need to make that infrastructure more robust. Plus, we can do more with warning: “In a pinch, power companies could protect valuable transformers by taking them offline before the storm strikes.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on March 07, 2011 (boomark / email).