'Can't blame it on the sun'

MUMBAI: Friday’s devastating tsunami in Japan has set off a debate on whether it was the result of heightened solar activity.

Dibyendu Nandi, a Kolkata-based space expert who last week led a breakthrough research on understanding the sun’s activity , scotched Western media suggestions that the devastation was the outcome of increased solar activity.

Speaking to TOI from Kolkata on Saturday he said: “There is no established connection between solar storms and tsunamis. Although there was a high solar flare on March 9 which hurled charged particles and magnetic fields towards the earth, it is unlikely that this flare had any role in the recent tsunami.’’Nandi explained that tsunamis are created by the sudden movement of tectonic plates in the ocean floor triggered by an earthquake.

The effects of solar flares are limited to the earth’s upper atmosphere, except at high altitudes where they can also affect power grids and oil pipelines, he explained.

He added: “I am not aware of any mechanism by which these storms can cause sudden changes in the earth’s tectonic plates.” But Kevin Martin, an expert in the field, has been quoted in a spacerelated website, Weather Space.com, as saying: “Solar weather has had my interest for years. Many past quakes have been connected with solar flare events. Japan’s activity may not have happened if it was not for the solar flare activity,”—an opinion echoed by other European space scientists.

Nehru Planetarium director Piyush Pandey shared Nandi’s assessment: “There is no known mechanism by which enhanced solar activity can set off an earthquake leading to a tsunami.’’

He dismissed suggestions that the moon coming closer to earth can cause this devastation because this phenomenon occurs every month. “People have put two and two together because this time it is happening on a full moon night.’’