A Solar Flare Closed to the Toronto Stock Exchange
We'll observe that the majority of the causes for closing the stock exchange are materialistic. But not all of them. It turns out that the sun occasionally has it in for us, as was the case in 1989 when a solar flare forced the closure of the Toronto Stock Exchange on August 16.
A significant solar flare had months before resulted in a blackout that affected areas of Ontario and the Canadian province of Quebec. Although the one in August was stronger, the earlier one had at least given officials some insight into what to anticipate and how to respond.
Three distinct disc drives that were intended to function as redundancies to keep the system functioning failed one after another like falling dominoes as a result of electromagnetic interference. As a result, the exchange was unavailable for three hours while repairs were being performed.
