🔬 Lab, quiz and sources for this story: https://echoesof.science/the-day-the-sun-blew-up-a-minefield/
On 4 August 1972, American aircraft off the coast of North Vietnam saw some two dozen mines explode in about 30 seconds, with no ship anywhere near them. The trigger was 150 million kilometres away: a giant flare on the Sun had thrown a cloud of magnetised gas at the Earth, and it arrived in a record 14.6 hours.
This documentary follows the story from the mining of Haiphong to the Sun's most violent week of the 1970s: how a magnetic mine works, how a solar storm can shake the Earth's magnetic field fast enough to fake a passing ship, what the storm did to power grids and phone lines, how close it came to the Apollo astronauts, and why scientists still argue about how big it really was.
Try it yourself: fool a magnetic mine, race a solar storm to the Earth, and trip a compass with a fridge magnet. https://echoesof.science/the-day-the-sun-blew-up-a-minefield
CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open
1:26 II. The Trigger
2:22 IV. Fourteen Hours
3:02 V. The Verdict
3:51 VI. Around the World
5:26 Epilogue
ARCHIVE PHOTOS & FOOTAGE
• USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) underway in the Pacific Ocean, circa — U.S. Navy, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) anchored at Hong Kong, in 1972.jpg — U.S. Navy, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• Mine explosion Operation End Sweep 9 March 1973.jpg — United States Navy photograph, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• Sikorsky CH-53A tows a magnetic minesweeping device through — U.S. Navy photo USN 711574, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• Sikorsky CH-53D sweeps Hon Bay, North Vietnam, on 18 March 1 — U.S. Navy photo USN 711571, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• USS Washtenaw County (MSS-2) underway off Haiphong on 20 Jun — U.S. Navy, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• GSFC_20140911_SDO_m11651_Flare — NASA (NASA), Public domain (NASA) (NASA Image and Video Library)
• Music: "Volatile Reaction" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Impact Lento" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Impact Moderato" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Echoes of Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Ossuary 6 - Air" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Long Road Ahead B" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
The sea, plumes and storm diagrams are reconstructions, not footage.
Echoes of Science: true stories you never heard of, and the science behind them. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@echoesof.science
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