The June 30, 1908, around 7 am, a tremendous explosion rocked the region of Tunguska, Central Siberia, Russia. At the epicenter, an area of nearly 3 square miles, the trees were felled and burned animals. More than 1 km away from there houses glasses were broken, people were knocked to the ground by the shock wave and hot winds swept violent and nearby forests. -> Across Europe and parts of Asia were recorded seismic waves like an earthquake. In Germany, Moscow, England and Belgium, the sky lit up with a strange phosphorescence remained for months. The contemporary accounts say that it was such a light, which illuminated the sky was still dark, so much so that one could read without turning on the lights. Even today, 100 years later, the curious phenomenon has not been explained. The accounts of those who witnessed it are so similar, reaching one to reveal the magnitude of the event: "At breakfast time I was sitting close to the trading post Vanavara, facing north. Suddenly, I saw that, directly north on Route Onkoul Tunguska, the sky opened up in two and fire appeared, very tall and very wide, especially the forest.'s crack in the sky grew larger, and the entire north side was covered fire. Suddenly I felt so hot that it became unbearable, as if my shirt burned: the north side, where the fire was, came strong heat wave. I wanted to take off my shirt and throw it away, but then the heavens closed and a loud explosion was heard. I was thrown several meters away. lost the sense for a moment, but then my wife came out and took me to the house. After that there was a noise, as if large rocks will roll a against each other or as artillery fire. The earth shook, and when I fell to the ground, I pressed my head against the ground, because he feared that stones fell over me and beat me. When the sky opened a hot wind passed between the houses, as that comes from the mouth of the cannon, leaving furrows in the soil and destroying crops. then saw that all the windows were broken, and in the barn, the iron latch lock had broken into two '. The first expedition to the site was not until 1922 and was in charge of Soviet mineralogist Leonid Kulik. Kulik had the theory that a meteorite had hit the Earth. On this first trip, Kulik could not reach the epicenter of the explosion, but detailed observations from a nearby summit: "From our vantage point there are no signs of forest, as everything has been ravaged and burned, and around the edge of this dead zone young forest vegetation of the last twenty years has advanced furiously, seeking sunshine and life. was experiencing a strange feeling to see these gigantic trees, 50 to 75 centimeters in diameter, as if they were twigs broken , and their tops projected many feet away to the south ". (Note that, at present, the zone remains in the same condition at that time.) The following Kulik expedition took place in 1927, but what was his surprise to reach the epicenter and discover that there was no trace of the meteorite: not only no trace, there was no crater. From that time (and to date) are numerous theories of what may have caused an explosion so devastating, equivalent to several times the Hiroshima bomb. In fact, the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima were much lower than those of this explosion. One of the most popular theories, but menosaceptada a scientific level, is the Engineer and Russian Yuri Lavbin ufologist, who says that the explosion was caused by an extraterrestrial craft destroyed a celestial body was heading to Earth, and then impacting her. Lavbin claims to have found metal parts in the area in 2007, which are not of any material known on Earth, he said. The most widely accepted scientific theory to date is that of the comet. A lack of crater, many scientists agree that the only option is a comet, or part of it, may have reached the atmosphere and thermal undergone a transformation triggered a nuclear meltdown. This theory was first proposed by geochemist Kirill Florensky, who made three expeditions in 1958, 1961 and 1962. But recent discoveries have floated the meteorite theory. Researchers from the Institute of Marine Science studying in Italy are Cheko Lake, 8 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. This lake is 50 meters deep and 450 meters in diameter and, according to the researchers, no records of who was there before 1908. They believe that it is the crater produced by a smaller fragment of mysterious meteorite that would have exploded at some point in the earth's surface. Like all other theories, has its critics: many believe that had there been a physical impact, judging by the effects of the explosion, the crater should be much higher. Stranger Speculations have hatched around this phenomenon: from a failed scientific experiment Nikola Tesla, until a clash of antimatter Earth's atmosphere, among many others. |