Tunguska explosion

Posted on July 1, 2008 by | 5 Comments

Something happened in Siberia 100 years ago – exactly, on this day. I always found the event very intriguing. If you want to learn everything one needs and wants to know about the event, written in a way that will make you excited – go and read Archy’s latest masterpiece (hmmm, anthology-worthy?).

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5 responses to “Tunguska explosion”

  1. David Bradley | July 1, 2008 at 5:04 am |

    There was a bizarre theory recently about how the Tunguska event may somehow be related to the global warming of the twentieth century…the original press release came out of Leicester University. It has to be nonsense, surely?

  2. Ian | July 1, 2008 at 6:49 am |

    I read somewhere recently (Probably SciAm or Discover) that scientists have found what might be the smoking gun – a small lake in the region which appears to be filling a meteor crater, at the bottom of which appears to be a solid mass of some sort. The investigation continues to determine if the mass is real and what it is.

  3. John McKay | July 1, 2008 at 7:35 pm |

    David,
    I wish I had seen that one before writing my piece; I definitely would have found a way to work it in.
    Archy

  4. pft | July 2, 2008 at 9:19 pm |

    I vote for the Tesla theory.
    http://www.frank.germano.com/tunguska.htm
    “In 1907 and 1908, Tesla wrote about the destructive effects of his energy transmitter. His Wardenclyffe facility was much larger than the Colorado Springs device that destroyed the power station’s generator. Then, in 1915, he stated bluntly:
    It is perfectly practical to transmit electrical energy without wires and produce destructive effects at a distance. I have already constructed a wireless transmitter which makes this possible. … But when unavoidable [it] may be used to destroy property and life. The art is already so far developed that the great destructive effects can be produced at any point on the globe, defined beforehand with great accuracy (emphasis added).(30) Nikola Tesla, 1915
    He seems to confess to such a test having taken place before 1915, and, though the evidence is circumstantial, Tesla had the motive and the means to cause the Tunguska event. His transmitter could generate energy levels and frequencies capable of releasing the destructive force of 10 megatons, or more, of TNT. And the overlooked genius was desperate.
    The nature of the Tunguska event, also, is consistent with what would happen during the sudden release of wireless power. No fiery object was reported in the skies at that time by professional or amateur astronomers as would be expected when a 200,000,000 pound object enters the atmosphere at tens of thousands miles an hour. Also, the first reporters, from the town of Tomsk, to reach the area judged the stories about a body falling from the sky was the result of the imagination of an impressionable people. He noted there was considerable noise coming from the explosion, but no stones fell. The absence of an impact crater can be explained by there having been no material body to impact. An explosion caused by broadcast power would not leave a crater.”

  5. rpsms | July 3, 2008 at 10:22 am |

    pft: beautiful satire. You almost had me believing you were serious!