Miyake event

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

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

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

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