Tunguska event

Extracted Attributes

• Date

  1908-06-30

• Location

  Near Podkamennaya Tunguska River, Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Siberia, Russia

• Event Type

  Meteor air burst, Impact event

• Coordinates

  60.916666666 N, 101.95 E

• Significance

  Largest impact event on Earth in recorded history

• Impact Crater

  None found (object disintegrated before reaching surface)

• Impactor Size

  Approximately 50-60 meters wide

• Impactor Type

  Stony asteroid

• Impactor Speed

  Approximately 27 km/s (Mach 80)

• Estimated Energy

  3 to 50 megatons of TNT equivalent (commonly cited as 10-15 megatons)

• Explosion Altitude

  5 to 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles)

• Torino Scale Rating

  8

• Estimated Fatalities

  Up to three people

• Area of Forest Flattened

  2,150 square kilometers (80 million trees)

• Country (at time of event)

  Russian Empire

Timeline

• The Tunguska event occurs, a massive explosion near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia, Russia, flattening 2,150 square kilometers of forest. (Source: summary, wikipedia, dbpedia)

  1908-06-30

• Seismic waves generated by the explosion are detected as far away as England. (Source: web_search_results)

  1908-06-30

• Leonid Kulik leads the first Soviet research expedition to the Tunguska site, finding no crater but extensive tree damage. (Source: web_search_results (implied by 'Kulik's place (estimated) 1927' in OpenStreetMap))

  1927

• The effects of the Tunguska event are later compared to the nuclear explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, highlighting its immense power. (Source: web_search_results)

  1945-08

• The Chelyabinsk bolide event provides new data, allowing scientists to create updated models for understanding the Tunguska event. (Source: web_search_results)

  2013-02-15

Tunguska event

The Tunguska event was a large explosion of between 3 and 50 megatons that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia, on the morning of 30 June 1908. The explosion over the sparsely populated East Siberian taiga felled a large number of trees, over an area of 2,150 km2 (830 sq mi) of forest, and eyewitness accounts suggest up to three people may have died. The explosion is attributed to a meteor air burst, the atmospheric explosion of a stony asteroid about 50–60 metres (160–200 feet) wide.: p. 178  The asteroid approached from the east-south-east, probably with a relatively high speed of about 27 km/s; 98,004 km/h (Mach 80). Though the incident is classified as an impact event, the object is thought to have exploded at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometres (3 to 6 miles) rather than hitting the Earth's surface, leaving no impact crater. The Tunguska event is the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history, though much larger impacts are believed to have occurred in prehistoric times. An explosion of this magnitude would be capable of destroying a large metropolitan area. The event has been depicted in numerous works of fiction. The equivalent Torino scale rating for the impactor is 8: a certain collision with local destruction.

Web Search Results

• Tunguska event - Wikipedia

  The Tunguska event was a large explosion of between 3 and 50 megatons[\[2\]]( that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia, on the morning of 30 June 1908.[\[1\]]( The explosion over the sparsely populated East Siberian taiga felled an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 km2 (830 sq mi) of forest, and eyewitness accounts suggest up to three people may have died.[\[2\]]( The explosion is attributed to a meteor air burst, [...] The Tunguska event is the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history, though much larger impacts occurred in prehistoric times. An explosion of this magnitude would be capable of destroying a large metropolitan area.[\[10\]]( The event has been depicted in numerous works of fiction. The equivalent Torino scale rating for the impactor is 8: a certain collision with local destruction. Description ----------- \[edit\] Image 5 Location of the event in Siberia (modern map) [...] The February 2013 Chelyabinsk bolide event provided ample data for scientists to create new models for the Tunguska event. Researchers used data from both Tunguska and Chelyabinsk to perform a statistical study of over 50 million combinations of bolide and entry properties that could produce Tunguska-scale damage when breaking apart or exploding at similar altitudes. Some models focused on combinations of properties which created scenarios with similar effects to the tree-fall pattern as well

• Implications for Impact and Airburst Phenomena – ScienceOpen

  The Tunguska event on the morning of June 30, 1908, stands as the most powerful cosmic impact in recorded history. Its enigmatic nature stems from the three puzzles: no visible impact crater despite the event’s massive energy release , no recovered meteorite fragments , and the uncertainty about the impactor’s composition – whether asteroid, comet, or another object [3–5]. These unresolved questions have spawned numerous competing theories and sustained scientific interest for over a century [...] The Tunguska event demonstrates the destructive potential of near-Earth objects and has significant implications for planetary defense. Recent studies have identified similar high-energy airburst events at other sites, including the prehistoric village at Abu Hureyra in Syria [13–16] and the city at Tall el-Hammam in the Middle Bronze Age [17, 18]. Therefore, understanding the Tunguska event’s mechanics is critical for historical reconstruction and future impact risk assessment. [...] The explosion occurred over the Eastern Siberian Taiga, flattening 2,150 sq km of forest and generating seismic waves detected in England . Scientists determined the epicenter by analyzing the radial pattern of fallen trees [8, 9] (Figure 1). The event released energy equivalent to 10-15 Mt of TNT [11, 12], yet left no obvious impact crater, suggesting the Tunguska object detonated as an airburst . Figures 1 and 2 show the sampling site.

• Tunguska event | Summary, Cause, & Facts - Britannica

  Tunguska event, enormous explosion that is estimated to have occurred at 7:14 am plus or minus one minute on June 30, 1908, at an altitude of 5–10 km (15,000–30,000 feet), flattening some 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) and charring more than 100 square km of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia (60°55′ N 101°57′ E), Russia. The energy of the explosion is estimated to have been equivalent to the explosive force of as much as 15 megatons of TNT—a thousand times [...] Encyclopedia Britannica Encyclopedia Britannica Aftermath of the Tunguska event What was the Tunguska event? tornado, digitally altered image. (storm; wind; clouds; natural disaster) Siberian taiga and the river Tunguska fall from a helicopter. Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society Big beaver gnawing on limb at river's edge Turtle, tortoise, reptile. Uses assets 88582 & 89606

• The biggest asteroid to hit Earth in recorded history vanished without ...

  On June 30, 1908, an asteroid flattened an estimated 80 million trees in Siberia over 830 square miles (2,150 square kilometers). Dubbed the Tunguska event, it is considered the biggest asteroid impact in recorded history. Yet no one has ever found the asteroid fragments or an impact site. [...] 1. Space 2. Astronomy 3. Asteroids The Tunguska event was the biggest asteroid impact in recorded history. How did it vanish without a trace? ========================================================================================================== News By Hannah Osborne published May 29, 2023 During the Tunguska event, over 8 million trees covering an area of 830 square miles were flattened when an asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere.

• Tunguska Event - Armagh Observatory and Planetarium

  Anyone familiar with the details of the events in Japan in August 1945 might recognise this sequence as being extremely similar to the events close to ground zero of the nuclear explosions above Hiroshima and Nagasaki, except of course the Tunguska event – named after the nearby river called Stony Tunguska (‘Podkamennaya Tunguska’, literally ‘Tunguska under the stones’) – took place several decades earlier. Indeed, this has led to some science-fiction theories about nuclear-powered alien [...] In the decades that followed, most scientists have agreed on two most likely explanations for what had occurred at Tunguska. It is quite clear that an object from outer space entered the atmosphere over central Siberia. Because no crater was ever found on the ground, and no meteorite either, it is thought that the object disintegrated (exploded) before reaching the surface. The blast area and other effects point to that conclusion, too. The two options, then, are what the object itself might [...] Most of the text above was adapted from a detailed article by Rok Nežič written to commemorate 110 years since the Tunguska Event on our blog, Astronotes, in the summer of 2018. You can find it byclicking this link.

• Image

  

• Country

  Russian Empire

• Instance Of

  Q179057

• Coordinates

  Lat: 60.916666666, Lon: 101.95

The Tunguska event (occasionally also called the Tunguska incident) was an approximately 12-megaton explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia, on the morning of June 30, 1908. The explosion over the sparsely populated Eastern Siberian Taiga flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 km2 (830 sq mi) of forest, and eyewitness reports suggest that at least three people may have died in the event. The explosion is generally attributed to a meteor air burst: the atmospheric explosion of a stony asteroid about 50–60 metres (160–200 feet) in size. The asteroid approached from the east-southeast, and likely with a relatively high speed of about 27 km/s (60,000 mph) (~Ma 80). It is classified as an impact event, even though no impact crater has been found; the object is thought to have disintegrated at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometres (3 to 6 miles) rather than having hit the surface of the Earth. The Tunguska event is the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history, though much larger impacts have occurred in prehistoric times. An explosion of this magnitude would be capable of destroying a large metropolitan area. It has been mentioned numerous times in popular culture, and has also inspired real-world discussion of asteroid impact avoidance.