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Tunguska Meteorite

Updated: Mar 4, 2020

Tunguska event refers to one of the most mysterious phenomena of the 20th century. 105 years ago, on June 30, 1908, a giant ball flew over the vast territory of Central Siberia in the interfluve of the Lower Tunguska and Lena rivers. Its flight was accompanied by sound and light effects and the latter by a powerful explosion. Despite a significant number of eyewitnesses and numerous expeditions, the place of the fall was not found.



On June 30, 1908 at about 7 am local time a unique natural event occurred over the territory of Eastern Siberia in the Podkamennaya Tunguska River Basin (Evenki District, Krasnoyarsk region).

Within a few seconds, a dazzling bright ball was seen in the sky, moving from the southeast to the northwest. The flight of this unusual celestial body was accompanied by a sound resembling a thunderclap. On the way of the bolide, which was visible on the territory of Eastern Siberia within a radius of 800 kilometers, remained a powerful dust trail, which stayed for several hours. After the light phenomena over the deserted taiga, a super-powerful explosion was heard at an altitude of 7-10 kilometers. The explosion energy was from 10 to 40 megatons in TNT equivalent, which is comparable to the energy of two thousand explosive nuclear bombs, similar to those dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Witnesses of the disaster were residents of a small trading station Vanavara (now - the village of Vanavara) and those few Evenki-nomads that were on the hunt near the epicenter of the explosion.



In a matter of seconds, the forest was blown up by a blast wave within a radius of about 40 kilometers, animals were destroyed, and people were injured. Simultaneously, under the influence of light radiation tens of kilometers around the taiga flared up. An explosive airwave that skirted the globe was recorded by many meteorological observatories of the world. In the first day after the accident, strange atmospheric phenomena were observed in almost the whole northern hemisphere - from Bordeaux to Tashkent, from the coast of the Atlantic to Krasnoyarsk - twilight, unusual in brightness and color, night glow of the sky, bright silvery clouds, daylight optical effects - halo and crowns around the sun . The radiance of the sky was so strong that many residents could not fall asleep. The clouds, formed at an altitude of about 80 kilometers, intensively reflected the sun's rays, thereby creating the effect of clear nights, even where they had not previously been observed. In a number of cities at night it was possible to read a newspaper printed in small font, and in Greenwich, at midnight a photograph of the seaport was obtained. This phenomenon lasted for several more nights.

The catastrophe caused fluctuations in the magnetic field, recorded in Irkutsk and the German city of Kiel. The magnetic storm resembled in its parameters the perturbations of the Earth's magnetic field, observed after high-altitude nuclear explosions.


Publications about the event appeared on the same day, but serious research began only in the 1920s. By the time of the first expedition since the fall, 12 years had passed, which adversely affected the collection and analysis of information.


The information obtained made it possible to conclude:


- No photos of the fall or movement of the body.

- The detonation occurred in the air at an altitude of 7 to 10 km, the initial estimate of power 40-50 megatons (some scientists estimate at 10-15).

- The explosion was not a point, in the supposed epicenter, the crankcase was not detected.

- The proposed landing site is a marshy area of ​the taiga on the Podkamennaya Tunguska river.



In 1927, the first explorer of the Tunguska event Leonid Kulik suggested that a large iron meteorite fell in Central Siberia. In the same year, he examined the place of the event. A radial fall of the forest around the epicenter was detected within a radius of 15-30 kilometers.

The forest was knocked down from the center like a fan, and in the center, a part of the trees remained standing on the vine, but without branches. The meteorite was never found. Scientists faced the main mystery of the Tunguska meteorite - over the taiga there was clearly a powerful explosion that knocked down the forest in a huge area, but a thing caused it did not leave any traces.


The main contradiction is the analysis of the area of the fallen forest, it had the shape of a butterfly characteristic for a fall of the meteorite, but the orientation of the lying trees is not explained by any scientific hypothesis. In the early years, the taiga was dead, afterward, the plants showed an abnormally high growth characteristic of the regions exposed to radiation: Hiroshima and Chernobyl. But the analysis of the collected minerals didn't detect any evidence of ignition of a nuclear matter.



Devil's Glade


Devil's glade is considered one of the strangest places in Russia. The anomaly was formed after the Tunguska meteorite fell near this zone. The anomaly is a naked scorched meadow where nothing grows. Trees that grow near are charred. The diameter of the meadow is from 100 to 300 meters. Local people bypass this zone, assuring that if anyone will step abroad he will die, whether it is a man or an animal. Also, interruptions in the operation of equipment were recorded. Near the zone, there is a deterioration in health, weakness, fear.


The nature of the Tunguska event remains unconfirmed until now. On October 9, 1995, in the south-east of Evenkia near the village of Vanavara, a state nature reserve "Tunguska" was established by a decree of the Russian government.



Nature reserve "Tunguska"







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