The entire province of Quebec, Canada suffered a major electrical power blackout on March 13, 1989 that affected over 6 million people. The blackout was caused by a powerful solar flare and coronal mass ejection on March 9th that sent a billion-ton cloud of plasma towards Earth. This geomagnetic storm interacted with the Earth's magnetic field and caused surges of electrical ground currents that overloaded circuits in Hydro-Quebec's power grid, triggering widespread failures across their transmission system. It was one of the most significant blackouts ever caused by solar activity and demonstrated just how vulnerable modern electrical grids can be to space weather.

1. THE BLACOUTSTORM
Subject: Astronomy Club
Class: IX
Name: Saksham Soni, Divy Raghav
Kakar, Manpreet Nagpal, Karan Verma

2. What Happened on 13th march
1989 ???
On March 13, 1989
the entire province
of Quebec, Canada
suffered an
electrical power
blackout. Hundreds
of blackouts occur
in some part of
North America
every year.

3. What were the
causes ?
The geomagnetic storm causing this
event was itself the result of
a coronal mass ejection on
March 9, 1989.Three and a half
days later, at 2:44 am on March
13, 1989, a severe geomagnetic

4. Effects on Earth and People..
Astronomers witnessed a
powerful explosion on the sun.
Within minutes, tangled magnetic
forces on the sun had released a
billion-ton cloud of gas. It was
like the energy of thousands of
nuclear bombs exploding at the
same time. The storm cloud rushed
out from the sun, straight
towards Earth, at a million miles

5. MORE DANGER
The solar flare that
accompanied the
outburst immediately
caused short-wave
radio interference,
including the jamming
of radio signals from
Radio Free Europe into
Russia. It was thought
that the signals had
been jammed by the
Kremlin, but it was only

6. Reports…
Electrical ground currents created
by the magnetic storm found their
way into the power grid of the
Hydro-Quebec Power Authority and
the entire Quebec power grid
collapsed. Six million people were
affected as they woke to find no
electricity to see them through a
cold Quebec wintry night. This
storm could easily have been a $6
billion catastrophe affecting most
US East Coast cities.

7. Blackout In Quebec
The variations in
the earth's magnetic
field also tripped circuit
breakers on Hydro-
Québec's power grid. The
utility's very long
transmission lines and the
fact that most of Quebec
sits on a large rock
shield prevented current
flowing through the
earth, finding a less
resistant path along the
735 kV power lines.

8. THANK YOU
THE QUEBEC BLACKOUT STORM