THE TUNGUSKA EVENT: HISTORY’S UNKNOWN EXPLOSION

By Senan Karunadhara

Chernobyl, Hiroshima, Nagasaki. All of these are known today as the sites of some of history’s biggest and most devastating explosions. We know the reasons for these explosions, whether it be a failing nuclear reactor or a nuclear bomb, yet, the Tunguska Event remains one of history’s most mysterious events.

On the 30th June 1908, an explosion occurred in Eastern Siberia. This was the largest ever impact on Earth in recorded history producing roughly 185 times more energy than the Hiroshima bombing with seismic ripples that could be observed even in the UK. In the morning, a fireball roughly 50-100m wide was seen ripping across the sky, with an eyewitness stating that the, “Sky was split in two… the sky appeared covered with fire.” The impact resulted in the depletion of 2,000 sq km of a neighbouring forest and the flattening of 80 million trees. Fortunately, the explosion occurred in a sparsely populated area and thus very few people died, though records state that no one died which is very unlikely. However, impacts were felt in towns with windows being destroyed and disruptions in the weather. Despite all of this destruction left in the wake of the Tunguska event, scientists today still do not know what caused the explosion, in fact local residents report that they did not even see an actual explosion.

After the explosions, no-one was sent to investigate what had happened, most likely because Russia was already busy with its own political turmoil and the Russian Scientific Authority already had more pressing issues. In fact, the event itself was not even widely reported even in St Petersburg and Moscow. Eventually, in 1927 a team led by Leonid Kulik decided to explore the area, after convincing Russian authorities it would be useful. The group believed that a meteor had exploded in the atmosphere, however, when thy arrived at the site they were surprised to find that there was no impact crater or any meteoric remnants. This discovery prompted a multitude of conspiracy theories including the idea that the explosion was caused by the collusion of matter and antimatter or that a black hole had collided into the Earth. There was even the idea that an alien spaceship had crashed on the site in order to search for potable water.

Scientists today believe that the most likely cause is that when the cosmic object entered the atmosphere it broke apart. This caused huge heat in shockwaves that destroyed natural life in the surrounding areas. However, we really do not know enough to know how to defend against another event like this.

Scientists believe that the probability of this happening again is extremely rare, but there’s always the possibility.