DesertFox
06-27-2007, 08:15 PM
After nearly 100 years of searches, researchers have found what may be an impact crater made by the object that caused a huge blast over the remote Siberian area of Tunguska on 30 June 1908.
Others caution that the identification of the crater remains to be proved, but say it could be an important discovery and merits further study.
The 1908 blast flattened trees over an area of 2,000 square kilometres and produced booming sounds, seismic effects and bright night skies through much of Europe and central Asia. Most researchers think it was caused by an incoming stony asteroid exploding about 5 to 10 kilometres above the ground as it careened through the atmosphere, producing a blast of 10 megatonnes of energy or more. That makes it the largest impact of extraterrestrial origin recorded in historic times. But numerous expeditions to the remote, unpopulated tundra region had failed to locate a crater or any fragments of the exploding object.
More (http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070625/full/070625-8.html)
Others caution that the identification of the crater remains to be proved, but say it could be an important discovery and merits further study.
The 1908 blast flattened trees over an area of 2,000 square kilometres and produced booming sounds, seismic effects and bright night skies through much of Europe and central Asia. Most researchers think it was caused by an incoming stony asteroid exploding about 5 to 10 kilometres above the ground as it careened through the atmosphere, producing a blast of 10 megatonnes of energy or more. That makes it the largest impact of extraterrestrial origin recorded in historic times. But numerous expeditions to the remote, unpopulated tundra region had failed to locate a crater or any fragments of the exploding object.
More (http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070625/full/070625-8.html)