The geomagnetic storm of 1859 is the most powerful in the history of observations of geomagnetic storms. The complex of events, including both a geomagnetic storm and the powerful active phenomena on the Sun that caused it, is sometimes called the "Carrington Event".
From August 28 to September 2, numerous sunspots and flares were observed on the Sun. Just after noon on September 1, British astronomer Richard Carrington observed the largest flare that caused a large coronal mass ejection. He rushed to the Earth and reached it after 18 hours, which is very fast, since this distance is usually covered by the ejection in 3-4 days. The blowout was moving so fast because the previous blowout had cleared the way for it.
On September 1–2, the largest geomagnetic storm in the history of registration began, causing the failure of telegraph systems throughout Europe and North America. The transmission lines sparked, the telegraph paper spontaneously ignited. Some devices continued to work even when disconnected from telegraph lines. Northern lights have been observed all over the world, even over the Caribbean; It is also interesting that over the Rocky Mountains, they were so bright that the glow woke up the gold diggers, who began to prepare breakfast, thinking it was morning.
Ice cores indicate that events of this intensity recur on average about once every 500 years.
Now let's imagine what would happen if the "Carrington Event" happened today. In the past, humanity to a large extent did not notice even sufficiently powerful solar flares (except perhaps the deterioration of the general condition of the human body), but in our advanced age of electricity, the consequences of such an outbreak will be catastrophic.
Our satellites will be the first to turn off, which will lead to a disconnection of communications, GPS, which means that all the stock markets of the planet will stop. Without satellites, the entire global financial system could collapse. Most likely, the entire air transportation system is paralyzed. We will find ourselves without mobile communications. There will be no television, no Internet. Global chaos will come, because there will even be no where to find out information about what is happening (but most likely people will be warned at least about 18 hours before the storm, since scientists are now closely watching the Sun).
Then people will be able to observe a radiance similar to the polar one, but many times brighter. Further, when the emission reaches the surface of the earth, it will overload all power grids, leading to continental power outages. Most likely, no one will die from such an outbreak, but the consequences of a solar attack will not appear immediately. Drinking water will stop flowing, gas stations will shut down, oil and gas pipelines will stop functioning. Autonomous power systems in hospitals will work for three days and then stop. Cooling and food storage systems will fail. As a result, experts have calculated, millions of people will die within a year due to the indirect consequences of economic paralysis and general chaos.
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Moreover, it will take many years and a lot of finance to restore our entire system. It's all about the transformers: they cannot be repaired, they can only be replaced, and the factories where they are produced will be paralyzed. Therefore, the recovery process will be very slow. Of course, it is difficult to predict all the consequences of such an event, but one thing is clear for sure, this time it will not end with surprised prospectors and a broken telegraph.