THE BLACOUTSTORM

Subject: Astronomy ClubClass: IX Name: Saksham Soni, Divy Raghav Kakar, Manpreet Nagpal, Karan Verma

What Happened on 13th march 1989 ???

On March 13, 1989 the entire province of Quebec, Canada suffered an electrical power blackout. Hundreds of blackouts occur in some part of North America every year.

What were the causes ?

The geomagnetic storm causing this event was itself the result of a coronal mass ejection on March 9, 1989.Three and a half days later, at 2:44 am on March 13, 1989, a severe geomagnetic storm struck Earth. The storm began on Earth with extremely intense auroras at the poles.

Effects on Earth and People..

Astronomers witnessed a powerful explosion on the sun. Within minutes, tangled magnetic forces on the sun had released a billion-ton cloud of gas. It was like the energy of thousands of nuclear bombs exploding at the same time. The storm cloud rushed out from the sun, straight towards Earth, at a million miles an hour.

MORE DANGER The solar flare that

accompanied the outburst immediately caused short-wave radio interference, including the jamming of radio signals from Radio Free Europe into Russia. It was thought that the signals had been jammed by the Kremlin, but it was only the sun acting up!

Reports… Electrical ground currents created

by the magnetic storm found their way into the power grid of the Hydro-Quebec Power Authority and the entire Quebec power grid collapsed. Six million people were affected as they woke to find no electricity to see them through a cold Quebec wintry night. This storm could easily have been a $6 billion catastrophe affecting most US East Coast cities.

Blackout In Quebec

The variations in the earth's magnetic field also tripped circuit breakers on Hydro-Québec's power grid. The utility's very long transmission lines and the fact that most of Quebec sits on a large rock shield prevented current flowing through the earth, finding a less resistant path along the 735 kV power lines.

The End

THANK YOU

THE QUEBEC BLACKOUT STORM