Today we mark 100 years since the Tunguska explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, Russia. The energy blasted from the explosion is estimated to 5 to 30 megatons, with 5 to 15 the most likely. It wiped out an estimated 80 million trees on 2150 squared kilometers.
The cause of the explosion, is, most likely, the burst of a meteor or comet into the air. According to Boris Shustov of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
We know that a rather massive body flew into the atmosphere of our planet. It measured 40 to 60 meters in diameter. Clearly, it did not consist of iron, otherwise it would have certainly reached the earth. The body decelerated in the atmosphere, the deceleration being very abrupt, so the whole energy of this body flying with a velocity of more than 20 [kilo]meters per second was released, which resulted in a mid-air explosion, very similar to a thermo-nuclear blast.
The yield of the explosion totaled 10 to 15 megatons, which matches the yields of the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested on the planet. The explosion felled some 80 million trees and caused natural phenomena. It is generally assumed that the blast did not kill any people.
Of course, there are other theories about the cause of the explosion:
- UFO crash; sometimes the Tunguska event was called the Russian Roswell incident; though claims of a spaceship debris recovery were made, they have not been proved.
- The annihilation of a chunk of antimatter from space
- A black hole zipping through Earth.
- a “death ray” generated by Nikola Tesla. One story says that he tested a death ray on the eve of June 30. Once he heard of the event at Tunguska he dismantled the weapon, considering it too dangerous.
Whether a natural event, UFO crash, weapon test or something else, the event is far from being explained, and most likely, more theories will come over the decades.
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