Ancient solar storm confirms Vikings settled in North America exactly 1,000 years ago

In 992 AD, a bust of high energy cosmic rays from the sun that was absorbed and stored by trees in the earth has helped pinpoint the Viking’s presence in North America to the exact year. 

A new type of dating technique using a long-ago solar storm as a reference point has revealed that the settlement was occupied in 1021 AD in North America, exactly a millennium ago and 471 years before the first voyage of Columbus. The technique was used on three pieces of wood cut for the settlement, all pointing to the same year.

The new dating method relies on the fact that solar storms produce a distinctive radiocarbon signal in a tree’s annual growth rings. It was known there was a significant solar storm in 992 AD.

The Viking voyage represents multiple reference points for humankind. The settlement offers the earliest-known evidence of a transatlantic crossing. It also marks the place where the globe was finally encircled by humans, who thousands of years earlier had trekked into North America over a land bridge that once connected Siberia to Alaska.

“Much kudos should go to these northern Europeans for being the first human society to traverse the Atlantic,” geoscientist Michael Dee of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, who led the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, told the Guardian.

“I think it is fair to describe the trip as both a voyage of discovery and a search for new sources of raw materials. Many archaeologists believe the principal motivation for them seeking out these new territories was to uncover new sources of timber, in particular. It is generally believed they left from Greenland, where wood suitable for construction is extremely rare,” Dee said.

The Viking Age is traditionally defined as AD 793 to 1066, presenting a wide range for the timing of the transatlantic crossing.

Ordinary radiocarbon dating – determining the age of organic materials by measuring their content of a particular radioactive isotope of carbon – proved too imprecise to date L’Anse aux Meadows, which was discovered in 1960, although there was a general belief it was the 11th century.

The Vikings ventured through Europe, sometimes colonizing and other times trading or raiding. They possessed extraordinary boat-building and navigation skills and established settlements on Iceland and Greenland.

(With inputs from agencies)