Historic Solar Storm Proves Vikings Beat Columbus

L'ANSE AUX MEADOWS, CANADA — A massive solar storm in the year has helped prove the Vikings had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in Canada by A.D. 1021, according to a study in the journal Nature.

Scientists already knew the solar storm occurred between A.D. 992 and 993 and were able to use a technique that measures increases in atmospheric radiocarbon concentration to correlate its impact on trees at the L'Anse aux Meadows [d]site, on Newfoundland's northern peninsula, with later Viking activity.

The study reanalysed wood excavated from the site in the 1960s, which had been cut using metal Viking tools otherwise unknown in North America at that point.

It found distinctive marks in the tree rings from the solar storm, plus 28 annual growth rings formed after those marks.

Adding 28 years to A.D. 993 showed Vikings had to have been cutting those trees in the year A.D. 1021, which means they arrived in the Americas 471 years before Christopher Columbus, according to The Guardian.

Having established a presence in Iceland and Greenland before arriving at the L'Anse aux Meadows site, the Vikings likely travelled west to gather new raw materials, most notably wood, according to the study’s lead author.