The other night on the Discovery Channel there was a program about the Tunguska mystery. Have you heard of it? In 1908, at about 7:15 a.m. on the morning of June 30th, a gigantic meteoroid or comet exploded 3 miles above a remote area in Siberia near the Tunguska River. The blast had the force of 1000 nuclear bombs equaling Hiroshima, and felled millions of trees for 830 square miles. Seismic waves from the blast were detected as far away as Germany, and the explosion caused an earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale. For 3 days afterwards, cities in Europe experienced 'bright nights,' from the reflection of the sun on the ash cloud.
Needless to say, if this event had occurred above any populated city in 1908, millions of people would have died, and the history of the world would have been altered. For example, if the meteoroid had exploded over Europe, perhaps W.W. I would never have occurred. If the blast happened in America, perhaps further immigration to the US would have halted. Perhaps America never would have been a superpower, or defeated the Japanese and Germans in W.W.II (if there was a W.W.II)
Size of impact compared to size
of NYC or DC at the time
Because Tunguska is so remote and isolated, the world (except for a few reindeer herds & a trapper or two) survived the impact. In fact, scientists really didn't examine the Tunguska area until the 1920's. ((The Russian Revolution and W.W.I temporarily halted inquiry. ))
From that point on many expeditions have gone to study the area, but did not find a large crater (as expected) or traces of radiation. Findings have led to some controversy about what actually fell (comet; meteoroid; UFO; black hole; man-made nuclear explosion) Today most scientists would agree that the blast was due to a piece of a comet or a large meteoroid (that exploded above the ground)
Even after 91 years, the felled trees and landscape of the Tunguska area show effects of the blast.
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