It would take a larger storm than an X45 to cause havoc here on earth.
It would take out our electrical grid, low-earth satellites, ISPs, and cell networks. Anything with a long wire attached is in trouble, as is anything in orbit. Grounded wires just introduce another way for current to enter the cables after a big CME.
It would need to be > X45 with a spot on direct CME hit. There was sparks and fires in 1859 and the entirety of the telegraphing system was not destroyed. We were hit with an X28 on 04/11/2003 and not shit happened except for a few slight disturbances.
You are talking about analog telegraphs and lines, not nano-scale electronics. We're far more vulnerable and reliant on technology now, not less.
Plus do you think a big CME 140 years ago means that's the upper limit? There is hard evidence that the earth was fried by the sun about 12k years ago. Not just electro-magnetic radiation, I mean half the earth cooked with deadly x-ray lightning levels of radiation and biblical floods. Do you think it's just coincidence that those squatting man petroglyphs look exactly like plasma toroids and are oriented all over the world to the same point in the sky?
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