I remember reading about this event when I was in my teens. It happened on June 30, 1908, at 7:15 am near the Tunguska River, Russia. This is now Krasnoyarsk Krai. Eyewitnesses remember seeing a large streak in the sky. They heard rumbles, felt overwhelming heat, were knocked off their feet, and were disoriented. An explosion of immense proportions had happened, and had sent shockwaves hundreds of miles away. It is estimated that the explosion was equivalent to 10 to 20 megatons of TNT. This is equivalent to the blast of a powerful hydrogen bomb.
It was only in 1921, when mineralogist Leonid Kulik visited the area, that some documentation starts appearing. Here is an eyewitness account from S. Semenov via Kulik:
“At breakfast time I was sitting by the house at Vanavara trading post (65 kilometres [40 miles] south of the explosion), facing North. [...] I suddenly saw that directly to the North, over Onkoul’s Tunguska road, the sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest (as Semenov showed, about 50 degrees up – expedition note). The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire Northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn’t bear it, as if my shirt was on fire; from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat. I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few yards. I lost my senses for a moment, but then my wife ran out and led me to the house. After that such noise came, as if rocks were falling or cannons were firing, the earth shook, and when I was on the ground, I pressed my head down, fearing rocks would smash it. When the sky opened up, hot wind raced between the houses, like from cannons, which left traces in the ground like pathways, and it damaged some crops. Later we saw that many windows were shattered, and in the barn a part of the iron lock snapped.”
The picture above shows trees near the epicenter of the blast. It is thought that the blast was due to an exploding meteoroid, 4-6 miles above the earth’s surface. Trees directly below the blast are stripped of their branches as the shockwave moves downward. Trees further out are felled as the shockwave turns more horizontal. The Tunguska event, or the Siberian Explosion, downed 80 million trees covering 830 square miles. That’s an impressive shockwave. Other eyewitnesses recorded tree limbs catching on fire. Another man was thrown through his front window while sitting on the porch. And most eyewitnesses record multiple “thumps” coming through the air and an ominous rumble through the ground. What an amazing event to witness! It’s estimated that these type of meteroid explosions happen around once every 300 years or so.
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The Tunguska Event
It was only in 1921, when mineralogist Leonid Kulik visited the area, that some documentation starts appearing. Here is an eyewitness account from S. Semenov via Kulik:
“At breakfast time I was sitting by the house at Vanavara trading post (65 kilometres [40 miles] south of the explosion), facing North. [...] I suddenly saw that directly to the North, over Onkoul’s Tunguska road, the sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest (as Semenov showed, about 50 degrees up – expedition note). The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire Northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn’t bear it, as if my shirt was on fire; from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat. I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few yards. I lost my senses for a moment, but then my wife ran out and led me to the house. After that such noise came, as if rocks were falling or cannons were firing, the earth shook, and when I was on the ground, I pressed my head down, fearing rocks would smash it. When the sky opened up, hot wind raced between the houses, like from cannons, which left traces in the ground like pathways, and it damaged some crops. Later we saw that many windows were shattered, and in the barn a part of the iron lock snapped.”
The picture above shows trees near the epicenter of the blast. It is thought that the blast was due to an exploding meteoroid, 4-6 miles above the earth’s surface. Trees directly below the blast are stripped of their branches as the shockwave moves downward. Trees further out are felled as the shockwave turns more horizontal. The Tunguska event, or the Siberian Explosion, downed 80 million trees covering 830 square miles. That’s an impressive shockwave. Other eyewitnesses recorded tree limbs catching on fire. Another man was thrown through his front window while sitting on the porch. And most eyewitnesses record multiple “thumps” coming through the air and an ominous rumble through the ground. What an amazing event to witness! It’s estimated that these type of meteroid explosions happen around once every 300 years or so.
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