100 years ago today...

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Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:29 am

30 June 1908: the forests of Tunguska are seared by a fireball of a yield of perhaps 15 megatonnes. It was most likely a bolide or a comet fragment.

This was posted on an intranet forum today.

Quote:

Scientists gathered in Siberia on June 26-28 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event, one of the world's most mysterious explosions, which flattened 80 million trees but largely went unnoticed at the time. The massive blast, equivalent to around 15 megatons, occurred approximately 7-10 km above the Stony Tunguska River in a remote area of central Siberia early on June 30, 1908.
The explosion, which was estimated to measure up to 5 on the Richter scale, knocked people off their feet 70 km away and destroyed an area of around 2,150 sq km (830 sq miles).
If the explosion had occurred some 4 hours and 47 minutes later, due to the Earth's rotation it would have completely destroyed the then Russian capital of St. Petersburg.
However, despite the fact that the night sky was lit up across Europe and Asia and the shock waves were detected as far away as Britain, the Tunguska Event largely went unnoticed eclipsed by global events leading up to World War I, the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war. It was not until almost 20 years later in 1927 that any scientific expedition managed to visit the remote site.
The 1927 expedition, led by Leonid Kulik, a leading meteorite expert at the Academy of Sciences, discovered the massive destruction left by the blast and gathered witness statements from locals living in the area. It was assumed that a huge meteorite had hit the area, although Kulik failed, during his research in Siberia, to find an obvious crater. Around 33 years later another expedition was also unsuccessful in its search for the elusive crater and scientists were faced with the Tunguska mystery; an explosion 1,000 times more powerful that the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, but which had left no trace as to its cause.
Although there have been dozens of theories since, from UFOs, antimatter, doomsday events and black holes, the most likely being an airborne explosion of a 10-30-meter wide meteorite or comet, none of them has provided conclusive evidence which has merely fuelled the speculation surrounding Tunguska.
At the Tunguska conference in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in Siberia scientists from all over Russia gathered to discuss, using the latest computer technology, as well as less traditional methods, what actually caused the destruction in the remote Siberian region.
As part of the anniversary, in the Evenki autonomous area, a statue of the Evenki god of Thunder, which reflects eyewitness testimony to the events 100 years ago, was erected at the site believed to be the meteorite crash location.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:56 am

Many of the local residents thought the world was ending. I found this quote rather amusing

Quote:

The peasants of the village [of Korelina] were so stunned by the crashes that they sent a deputation to town to the local archpriest to ask if the end of the world was beginning, [and] how they were preparing for it in Kirensk.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:40 am

Yastreb wrote:

If the explosion had occurred some 4 hours and 47 minutes later, due to the Earth's rotation it would have completely destroyed the then Russian capital of St. Petersburg.

A bit meaningless. The Earth also goes round the Sun, and moves about 320,000 miles in 4 hours and 47 minutes.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:04 am

This cannot be serious!! Shocked

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:14 am

Dougie - which bit?

BTW - Mr TT - I think the point about Saint Petersburg was that we were lucky that day; had the Tunguska fireball fallen on a major city, it would have been perhaps the worst disaster in recorded history.

Three separate meteorite strikes occurred in the 20th century - Siberia 1908 and 1947, and Brazil (the Rio Curucao incident) in 1930. In all cases, had they impacted in cities, the carnage would have been frightful. We've been very lucky so far.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:22 pm

It's Lucky for humans that most of the worlds surface is uninhabited by humans. If I was a tree I might consider the statistics alarming. If I where a tree or a whale I might be alarmed. Then again I'm pretty sure whales and trees don't read the news.

That was an amasing occurrence. Natural disasters occur all the time. Once they are over and left to the history books, mankind moves on and all the tears are forgotten.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:39 pm

Actually it was one of my Russian ancestors passing gas. He had too much vodka and borsch. Confused

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:51 pm

In my pre-Eater days I used to read a lot on sites which deal with Degree Confluence Projects, i.e. people visiting and photographing the spots on Earth where whole degrees of longitude and of latitude meet (and which are on land and not too near the poles, since they naturally accumulate there).

One thing (maybe the only thing) I learnt from there was that almost all of these spots tend to be in wildlife nature, in forests, in deserts, on fields. You will find many thousands of pics of absolutely desert places (mostly beautiful views though, shot in various times of the year).

I only mention this today because it made me aware that only a very very small part of the world is cities or even only villages. Naturally, had the Tunguska meteorite hit a city, it would have been the greatest desaster in recorded history, as you say, Yastreb. The actual chance, however, even today is (luckily) very small.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:06 pm

I wonder how many scammers one that size could take out, if it hit Nigeria?

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:08 pm

Funny I was thinking the same thing. Laughing

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:13 pm

I was thinking how many innocent people. Wait, that's right, every person in Nigeria is a scammer and all scammers come from Nigeria.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:24 pm

One theory is that there was a leak and explosion of underground gas. Chibuike - was your ancestor a miner? Laughing

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:26 pm

^^^I think I married one of this person's decendents.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:47 pm

Reaper wrote:

I was thinking how many innocent people. Wait, that's right, every person in Nigeria is a scammer and all scammers come from Nigeria.

I wasn't being entirely serious.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:51 pm

Quote:

It was most likely a bolide or a comet fragment

Sorry, but I initially read that as:

'It was most likely a blonde or a comet fragment'

[takes cover]

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 3551

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:16 pm

^^ so did I at first. What does this button do? *bam*

Looking at photographs of Tunguska it looks more like an airburst than an underground explosion. I'm going with the meteorite theory, a large metorite fragmenting as it hit the atmosphere would cause a hellish explosion based purely on its sheer speed.

Also consider that an explosion estimated at 15MT yield would need an enormous volume of gas, correctly mixed with air, to produce a similar yield.

there's some very famous footage of a near-miss here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIv7wL9nWMQ&NR=1

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:04 pm

The whole thing was just a hoax. It was all filmed in a Hollywood studio.

The POWERS THAT BE want to make us believe we're in constant danger. That way they can control us and take all our money and enslave our children.

We must fight the elite. The truth will come out in 2012.

The Nigerian 419 letters are not spam. They all contain sublime messages from the secret underground. Collect them and read them. You will see the message.

BE PREPARED!

If you want to read crap posts from people who really believe bullshit like this, go visit www.godlikeproductions.com - it's woowoo crackpot central.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:28 pm

Dougie wrote:

This cannot be serious!! Shocked

If you image google 'Tunguska' you'll get some photos of all the trees in the impact area, flattened and pointing away from the centre. They look a bit like iron filings sprinkled around a magnet.

I think the meteorite was thought to consist mainly of glass which explains why it vapourised on impact or blew up in the atmosphere due to the immense heating on entry.

There was a suspicion that it was as a result of early Russian nuclear experiments going around for a while too.

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:50 pm

I'm with KD.

It's the NWO.

Kill a few trees and we all shit our pants and act like sheep. I'll bet there were no hippy tree-huggers before 1908. The US pullout in Vietnam was probably spawned at Tungasuka.
And send out a load of 419s and those of us destined for greatness are kept busy baiting assholes when we should be fighting the hidden powers that be. Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:53 pm

Greetings in the Name of Jesus!

I am Barrister Charles Soludo, representing the estate of Nicolai Gurdin, who
along with his family, were killed by the giant meteor...

Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:13 am

@kleindoofy Not to go Off-topic here but OMGoodness, people love conspiracy theories huh? I don't know if I should laugh at that site or cry at it. Shocked

I bet Elvis had something to do with it, hima AND Bigfoot!

Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:04 am

Thanks for the reminder, Yastreb.

Some may find this wiki article interesting: ---> Clicky.

Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:33 pm

windypops wrote:

... I think the meteorite was thought to consist mainly of glass which explains why it vapourised on impact or blew up in the atmosphere due to the immense heating on entry. ...

Errr, uhhh, ...

windypops wrote:

... There was a suspicion that it was as a result of early Russian nuclear experiments going around for a while too.

In 1908?

Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:37 pm

Look, guys, the ultimate solution is to get a mugu to go there to personally investigate...

Bruin