Shocking – Illinois Rocks & Soil were Electrified by Solar Flares

You might want to avoid setting your smartphone down on a rock in Illinois for awhile. There is scientific evidence that recent solar flares literally electrified rocks and soil in the Land of Lincoln.

I admit that I had to do a double-take when I saw this new revelation by Space Weather about what the historic solar flares did to the ground in Illinois and several other Midwestern states. They mentioned extreme electrical energy that impacted the land of Illinois as they said "the biggest voltages along the US eastern seaboard and in the Midwest were as much as 10,000 times normal" as proven by a map shared by the USGS.

What does it mean for the Illinois rock and soil to be electrified and can it harm you?

The good news is that while the ground doesn't normally receive this kind of jolt like the one delivered by the 7 CME's ejected from the Sun that hit earth on May 10 and May 11, the ground can't hurt you or at least the electricity contained therein isn't really dangerous. But, it does give you an idea of how large that solar event really was. When it's big enough to fry the ground, we're fortunate the power grid didn't experience a Carrington-level event like the one that hit Earth in the 1800's.