Shortly after the upcoming total solar eclipse, another rare sight to behold will occur in the central-eastern Midwest: As many as a hundred trillion periodical cicadas are expected to come out of hibernation in what experts are calling a "cicada-geddon."
On April 8, the total solar eclipse—when the sun is completely blocked by the moon—will be seen across 13 states, as well as small areas of Tennessee and Michigan. The celestial spectacle is not set to recur over the U.S. for decades, and millions of people will head to ideal viewing spots to see it.
But after that has happened, two cicada populations nesting close together are expected to emerge, creating a combined swarm that will dominate a large portion of the U.S.
Periodical cicada broods develop over a number of years underground before burrowing up and out all at once. They are then active aboveground as adults for a matter of weeks before laying the next generation and dying off.
"It's like an entire alien species living underneath our feet and then some prime number years they come out to say hello," Saad Bhamla, a professor of biotechnology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told TV station WFLD in Chicago. "This year we're going to get two broods that are going to emerge at the same time."
Experts believe that Brood XIX—which operates on a 13-year cycle and nests across a swath of the mid-South from southern Iowa to the Carolinas—and Brood XIII, which arises every 17 years and nests between central Illinois and southern Wisconsin, are due to appear at the same time. It is thought that this coincidence has not occurred since 1803.
When they do emerge, based on previous outings, the cicadas will cover fields and houses in their path with shed exoskeletons and produce a noise that rivals a jet engine.
Brood XIX has already been observed creating boreholes in the ground in Georgia, suggesting the swarm is about to come out of hibernation and spread across the Southeast, according to the Associated Press.
With this emergence coinciding with that of the nearby Brood XIII, which has historically occupied a smaller area in greater density, "you would have more than anywhere else any other time," Paula Shrewsbury, an entomologist at the University of Maryland, told WFLD.
Researchers at the University of Connecticut estimate that the numbers that will come out this year could easily total in the hundreds of trillions—or even quadrillions. "Periodic cicadas don't do subtle," John Cooley, a biologist at the college who specializes in cicadas, told the AP.
Based on where the different broods have been observed inhabiting, they may overlap in a portion of central Illinois, but it is not considered likely they will interbreed.
The cicadas naturally emerge when the ground around where they are nesting reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit. While this usually occurs in the spring, experts say it is likely to happen earlier in the season because of the effects of climate change.
The next time two adjacent broods will emerge at the same time is not expected again in the U.S. until 2076, the AP said.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Aleks Phillips is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter based in London. His focus is on U.S. politics and the environment. ... Read more
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