The Tunguska Explosion: An Unexpected Loud Bang and Explosion by Philip Coppens

1420 Words3 Pages

Just as any other morning, Siberia was quiet and peaceful where everybody was just enjoying themselves, living their life when something catastrophic struck many peoples’ lives. Tunguska, Siberia has many mysteries, but this one mystery has had Russia very concerned. Until this very day, they’re trying to find the key evidence of a tragic event that was taking place on the banks of the river Podkamennaya Tunguska, Siberia. This event has struck many lives and not one single soul has found the cause or reason to why or what happened there. Though, many remarkable stories were told, nobody has ever found the truth or accurate evidence. Many Russian scientists can’t even pin point out the signs to the cause of it but remarkably having many theories. Today, Tunguska still remains a notorious mystery as scientists still search the area for more interesting clues, if any, which may change the Russians forever. On the morning of June 30, 1908, roughly 7:17 am, a catastrophic and mysterious occurrence has taken place by the Tunguska River, but that is about all this is known about it. This event was an explosion; an explosion that still remains unknown on how or what happened, who caused it, and why. In the article “The Tunguska explosion: an unexpected loud bang and explosion” by Philip Coppens, the explosion was so significant in history that this event is known for being the largest impact in history. Over 80 million trees had fallen over an area of 2,150 square kilometers. Also, in Coppens’ article, several people in the villages nearby had suffered from fatal burns and later reported that two people were killed. William K. Hartmann, who wrote the article “1908 Siberia Explosion: Reconstructing an Asteroid Impact from Eyewitness Accou... ... middle of paper ... ...l meteorites that collide with the earth often leave a crater or some type of fragments left behind. But this event was only getting remarkable by the day. One thing that really stunned scientists as they searched were the tree patterns. In fact, the forest fall left a butterfly pattern which was significant but yet oddly strange. According to Ol’khovatov, the forest-fall disappears just a few kilometers to the west of the epicenter, and the farther to the west are where rare fallen trees exist. And similar to what was stated above, there were attempts to stimulate the forest fall by a meteoroid explosion. Though, the results were remarkable they knew from large observational data-set that a meteoroid would disintegrate before impacting with the earth. In order for the trees to have a significant pattern the meteoroid had to be an enormous block of super-explosive.

More about The Tunguska Explosion: An Unexpected Loud Bang and Explosion by Philip Coppens

Open Document