Modern civilisation came within a week of being “pushed back to the Stone Age” after eruptions in the sun two years ago sent massive clouds of magnetised plasma through the Earth’s orbital path.
The burst of radiation would have been strong enough to destroy equipment such as navigation satellites and communications and trigger widespread blackouts had it hit the Earth, according to NASA.
“We would have been well and truly pushed back to the Stone Age for days,” said Alan Duffy, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University, of the most powerful solar storm detected in more than 150 years.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/pushed-back-to-the-stone-age-massive-solar-storm-mi
And a previous one
On September 1–2, 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, those in the northern hemisphere even as far south as the Caribbean; those over the Rocky Mountains were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning. People who happened to be awake in the northeastern US could read a newspaper by the aurora’s light. The aurora was visible as far from the poles as Cuba and Hawaii.
Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving telegraph operators electric shocks. Telegraph pylons threw sparks. Some telegraph systems continued to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.ssed-earth-by-just-one-week-20140725-zwo0c.html#ixzz38RW9neCX
If they throw out enough power to produce sparks from telegraph pylons I cannot see us (developed west) going back to the Stone Age for just a couple of days, I reckon it would burn out the lot, no ATMs, no modern car, nothing in your house working, no deliveries, no communications. Gonna take a while to sort that lot.