Experts are debunking claims that the explosion, which is as powerful as 185 Hiroshima and felt in Britain and the United States, was caused by a meteorite. He knocked down 80 million trees in Siberia and killed many deer, and also lit up the skies in Europe and the United States. Italian scientists initially thought Lake Cheko was a "missing meteorite" crater, but Russian scientists say the lake is "too young" to be an explosion crater.
The most powerful explosion in the world, which occurred in Russia and equal in strength to 185 Hiroshima, remains a mystery after experts refuted claims that it was caused by a meteorite.
A large fireball crossed the Siberian sky on June 30, 1908 and exploded nine kilometers above the Earth's surface, knocking down 80 million trees and charring the deer carcasses.
For 21 years now, Italian scientists have been investigating the so-called Tunguska phenomenon, claiming that the missing crater from the explosion is actually the freshwater lake Cheko. Thus, they confirm the theory of a meteorite explosion.
But Russian geologists have carried out new research indicating that the theory is wrong. This means that the colossal explosion that lit up the night sky in Europe and even in America remains a mystery, as reported by the Moscow media.
The Russians did not offer any alternative explanations for the explosion. In the past, very different and often outlandish theories have arisen about a powerful volcanic eruption, about a comet made of ice rather than solid space rocks, about a black hole colliding with the Earth, and even about aliens who shot down a meteorite from a UFO to save our planet.
Evenki local residents believed that it was the heavenly punishment of the evil god Ogda.
It turns out that the largest recorded explosion occurred, equal in power to 185 bombs dropped on Hiroshima, which, nevertheless, did not leave any traces of human casualties.
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“There was a clap in the sky and a powerful crash. Then there was a noise like stones falling from the sky or firing cannons. The earth shook,”said one local Siberian who was 65 kilometers from the epicenter.
It was like Armageddon. “I felt so hot that I could not breathe, and my shirt seemed to be on fire,” said another eyewitness. - I wanted to rip it off and throw it away, and suddenly the sky rumbled. There was a loud bang and I was thrown several meters away."
The shockwave reached Britain, and the dust from the explosion lit up the night sky in Europe and even in America.
Participants of the first Soviet expeditions to this remote region of Siberia were always puzzled by the absence of debris and craters from meteorite fragments on the surface.
Luca Gasperini, an Italian scientist from the University of Bologna, has long believed that Lake Checo, which is shaped like a crater and located eight kilometers from the epicenter, is the missing link in the Tunguska mystery.
It was not noted on maps of Siberia from tsarist times, and seismic measurements carried out by Gasperini's team at the bottom of the lake indicate the presence of silt that accumulated there for about 100 years.
Scientists have come to the conclusion that under the bottom of the lake there are dense rocks, which are the remains of an exploded meteorite.
The Italian theory is based on the laws of wood destruction. It consists in the fact that two bodies got into the atmosphere. One exploded eight kilometers above the ground, and the second fell to the ground, forming Lake Cheko.
Tunguska theories: what could "split the sky in two" in 1908
More than 110 years ago, a powerful explosion rang out in the sky over the Tunguska region of Siberia, knocking down all the trees at a distance of fifty kilometers.
It is believed that a comet or an asteroid exploded, flying through the earth's atmosphere at a speed of over 50 thousand kilometers per hour. An explosion occurred, equal in power to 185 bombs dropped on Hiroshima, and rapidly increasing pressure and temperature.
Explosion site of the Tunguska meteorite
RIA Novosti, Vasily Litosh
But since there is no crater from the explosion, and there is no evidence of the existence of a celestial body, scientists are still at a loss, not knowing what actually caused the phenomenon that "split the sky in two."
Numerous scientists and researchers have tried to figure out what happened on June 30, 1908 in the Tunguska area.
There are many explanations for this mysterious event, from the theory of UFOs to speculation about something supernatural, but many have absolutely no scientific justification.
Some scientists have even suggested that a black hole collided with the Earth. However, this idea was quickly refuted by experts.
In a review published in 2016 in the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Natalya Artemyeva of the Tucson Institute of Planetary Science, Arizona, said that the phenomenon had a very clear chronology.
What caused it most likely flew into the atmosphere at a speed of 14-30 kilometers per second. It was an extremely fragile body that collapsed nine kilometers above the Earth's surface.
The idea of an asteroid explosion was first expressed in 1927 by Leonid Kulik, having done it 20 years after the event.
Other scientists speculate that it could have been a comet made of ice rather than rocks. Hence, it evaporated, entering the dense layers of the atmosphere.
But some scientists warn that the findings do not provide a precise explanation for this strange explosion. Meteor showers are fairly common, but these samples could have been remnants of a much smaller and unnoticed phenomenon.
To a certain extent, the Tunguska phenomenon remains a mystery, which researchers are constantly trying to solve. But whatever it is - a comet or an asteroid - most scientists agree that the cause of the explosion was a large cosmic body that fell into the earth's atmosphere.
Russian researchers studied sediments from the deepest part of the lake, 50 meters from the surface, using geochemical and biochemical analyzes.
The results of this study show that the samples they obtained are about 280 years old. This means that the lake is most likely even older, since scientists were unable to take samples from the very bottom of the sedimentary layer.
Diamond-graphite intergrowths from the site of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite
RIA Novosti, Vasily Litosh
“In addition, there are other, practically round lakes in the Tunguska Nature Reserve, very similar to Lake Cheko and probably having the same geological origin,” says the statement of the expeditionary center of the Russian Geographical Society in the Siberian Federal District.
“Geologically, this lake looks young. But not young enough to be a crater of the Tunguska meteorite, - notes the Internet edition of The Siberian Times. It states that the origin of the lake remains a mystery.
So, Tunguska still keeps its secrets, but the answer may be that it was a meteorite and that it exploded in mid-air.
In 2013, rock samples of meteorite origin with traces of the carbon mineral lonsdaleite were found in this region of Siberia.
It is known that such a mineral is formed when meteorites fall to the Earth, but the samples found could be the remains of other meteor showers.
Will Stewart
