30 June 1908
At 7 am in the river basin Podkamennaya Tunguska A meteorite fell. Several hours earlier, residents of Eastern Siberia observed a bright bolide with a dust trail flying from south to north. The flight ended with a powerful explosion over the taiga.
Suddenly, the sky split in two in the north, and a fire appeared high and wide above the forest, engulfing the entire northern sky. At that moment, I felt so hot, as if my shirt had caught fire. I wanted to rip it off and throw it off, but the sky slammed shut, and there was a loud thud... After the thud, there was a loud thud, as if stones were falling from the sky. (Semyon Semenov, resident of Vanavara)
The blast wave was recorded by seismographs around the world. The sound of the explosion was heard 1000 km away. According to one theory, the explosion was caused by an extraterrestrial body—a meteorite or meteoroid, possibly of cometary origin.
The power of the explosion could reach 10-40 megatons of TNT equivalent, which is comparable to the energy of a hydrogen bomb.
The earth began to twitch and sway, a strong wind hit our tent and knocked it down... Then I saw a terrible miracle: the trees were falling, the needles on them were burning, the dry wood on the ground was burning, the reindeer moss was burning (Chuchanchi Shanyagir, Tungus)
Following the explosion, trees felled over an area of 2150 square kilometers in the taiga. A massive forest fire engulfed the area. Unusual phenomena were observed from Europe to Western Siberia—noctilucent clouds, solar halos, and bright twilight.
In July 1908, an article about the Tunguska meteorite fall was published in the Tomsk newspaper "Sibirskaya Zhizn." In 1910, it was reprinted in Kirchner's tear-off calendar. In 1921, it caught the eye of the scientist To Leonid KulikHe organized the first scientific expedition to the meteorite impact site. Several more followed.
Trees were found standing at the supposed epicenter of the explosion, while those around it had been felled. No trace of a crater could be found.
By the early 70s, there were 77 hypotheses about what happened. Three of the main ones are perhaps the most important: a rock, ice, or artificial body exploded over Tunguska. Read more about The Mystery of the Tunguska Meteorite - In film, filmed for the 100th anniversary of its fall.