Possible Meteorite Fragments from 1908 Tunguska Explosion Found

universetoday.com ^ | May 2, 2013 | Nancy Atkinson on

[BenLurkin]

The 1908 explosion over the Tunguska region in Siberia has always been an enigma. While the leading theories of what caused the mid-air explosion are that an asteroid or comet shattered in an airburst event, no reliable trace of such a body has ever been found. But a newly published paper reveals three different potential meteorite fragments found in the sandbars in a body of water in the area, the Khushmo River. While the fragments have all the earmarks of being meteorites from the event – which could potentially solve the 100-year old mystery — the only oddity is that the researcher actually found the fragments 25 years ago, and only recently has published his findings.

Like the recent Chelyabinsk airburst event, the Tunguska event likely also produced a shower of fragments from the exploding parent body, scientists have thought. But no convincing evidence has ever been found from the June 30, 1908 explosion that occurred over the Tunguska region. The explosion flattened trees in a 2,000 square kilometer area. Luckily, that region was largely uninhabited, but reportedly one person was killed and there were very few people that reported the explosion. Forensic-like research has determined the blast was 1,000 times more powerful than a nuclear bomb explosion, and it registered 5 on the Richter scale.

Previous expeditions to the region turned up empty as far as finding meteorites; however one expedition in 1939 by Russian mineralogist Leonid Kulik found a sample of melted glassy rock containing bubbles, which was considered evidence of an impact event. But the sample was somehow lost and has never undergone modern analysis.

The expedition in 1998 by Andrei Zlobin from the Russian Academy of Sciences was initially unsuccessful in finding meteorites or evidence of impacts.

[Verginius Rufus]

Maybe, but I’d hate to lose the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Smithsonian, and Mount Vernon, not to mention Arlington National Cemetery and the buildings the terrorists failed to hit in 2001. I can think of several cities which would make better targets.

[Windflier]

Maybe, but I’d hate to lose the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Smithsonian, and Mount Vernon, not to mention Arlington National Cemetery....

I agree. The loss of those places would wound our people like little else could.