1859: New Zealand’s Carrington Event
August 25, 2021
By AHNZ
Our sun is one big explosion which would engulf us all in a fiery death were it not held back by its own mass. One day, in the far future, enough matter will have burned off so the sun’s gravity will not be able to restrain the blast from turning our planet to cinders. It’s rare in human history but we have already been lashed by small such outbursts many times.
The Carrington Event was the largest such solar geomagnetic event ever recorded. It was observed in New Zealand from 30 August to 2 September 1859 and we are fortunate to have several witnesses.
Apart from a beautiful light show there is a danger to us in experiencing the next Carrington Event. Lines of circuitry for our electrical appliances and transmission lines, including telecommunications, are all sensitive to such an extra-terrestrial power surge.
Man-made electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) have long been weaponised in real life but more often turn up in video games or movies. Eg. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (image right.) On July 9, 1962, the USA detonated such a device in the upper atmosphere of the Pacific. Now declassified, the Starfish Prime test had the unanticipated result of damaging American civilian infrastructure. Phone lines, street lights, and security systems were made to fail or be destroyed in Hawaii some 1000km from the blast.
“When the sun reaches the peak of its voluminous red gianthood, it will extend to somewhat more than 100 times its present diameter, so that both Mercury and Venus will be engulfed within its substance. Earth may remain outside the swollen bulk of teh sun, but, even if the Earth does this, the enormous heat it will receive from the giant sun is quite likely to vapourize it.” – The Death of the Sun, Catastrophes of the Second Class; A Choice of Catastrophes, Asimov (1979)
“30th August 1859.–Last night the southern lights appeared in brightness like twilight, from south by east to south-west. At first the colour was pale pink. In the south-west a coruscation of a pink colour rose 45 degrees. It was very faint. A rough night. Barometer this morning 28.55. ” – Memoir of the Rev. Richard Davis, John Noble Coleman (1865); Early New Zealand Books, Auckland University
“2d September 1859.–The southern lights awfully grand, extending nearly to south-west, and a point or two from south to east, and from the horizon nearly vertical over head. Colour a light fiery scarlet.” – ibid
“All lovers of nature were charmed last Monday evening by the rare occurrence of the Southern Lights. This mysterious phenomenon, commencing about half-past six p.m. bore at first the singular appearance of daybreak. Extending to an elevation of about 30 degrees, the gradually increasing light was seen to quiver at intervals, and then vanish from the eyes like a dissolving view. The rays emitted, at first almost indistinct, afterwards formed themselves into coruscations shooting up from the south and south-west horizon. These becoming after a little time still more clearly defined against the evening sky presented the shape of luminous bars with an (apparent) edge plainly marked on the western side. In the meanwhile a reddish tint was observed to be spreading almost imperceptibly over the south portion of the heavens,” – Taranaki Herald, 3 September 1859; Papers Past
Our 1859 ancestors were living in the steam age not the electric age so suffered no widespread damage. In the more technically advanced northern hemisphere, however, telegraph lines were seriously damaged. “Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving telegraph operators electric shocks. Telegraph pylons threw sparks. Some telegraph operators could continue to send and receive messages despite having disconnected their power supplies.” New Zealand’s first telegraph line came on 1 July 1862. Ref. 1862: First Telegraph, AHNZ
“The rationalist and pantheist saw nature in her most exquisite robes, recognising, the divine immanence, immutable law, cause, and effect. The superstitious and the fanatical had dire forebodings, and thought it a foreshadowing of Armageddon and final dissolution.” – Carrington witness at Victoria, Australia, C.F. Herbert; Wiki
Generations prior to 1859 would have detected little or nothing because they had no widespread use of metal circuits. However, the next pulse, natural or man-made, will be a very different story. Our lives have come to depend on networks and devices un-shielded from an EMP from heating to transport to communication to health to cooking to…well, you name it!
Whenever we have any diaries or reports of August/September 1859 it’s worth having a glance to see if our New Zealand ancestors noted this disturbance. Did they fear or appreciate the lights in the sky? Did animals behave oddly, perhaps disorientated homing pigeons? Did any of their household goods shudder or shock as if animated by some otherworldly spirit? Perhaps a neck chain might give a lady a shock around her neck or a wire corset a jolt in her sitting room? A bird in a wire cage more crispy than the day before?
Ref. Note 2022: Curious synchronisity…
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