Skip to main content
Scientific American
  • Cart 0
  • Forgot password?Loading
    Not yet registered?
  • |Newsletters
Advanced Search
  • COVID
  • Health
  • Mind & Brain
  • Environment
  • Technology
  • Space & Physics
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Store
  • Subscribe
  • Current Issue
  • Cart0
  • Sign In
  • Newsletters
      • Share
      • Latest

      Tunguska--100 Years Later [Slide Show]

      What happened on June 30, 1908 in central Siberia? Was the atomic bomb–size airburst caused by antimatter? An extraterrestrial spacecraft? A wayward black hole?

      • Share on Facebook
      • Share on Twitter
      • Share on Reddit
      • Share on LinkedIn
      • Share via Email
      • Print
      Tunguska--100 Years Later [Slide Show]
      Slideshow (10) images
      View

      Tunguska--100 Years Later [Slide Show]

        • Share
      • FLATTENED: These trees, timbered over a diameter of about 50 miles (80 kilometers), radiated outward in a butterfly-shaped pattern from a central area where, oddly, some trees still stood, though scorched and stripped of their bark...
      • FELLED TREES: This picture from Russian mineralogist Leonid Kulik's 1929 expedition shows the flattened trunks piled up a good distance away from the central blast site.
      • GROUND ZERO?: Some researchers think Lake Cheko, shown here, may be the water-filled crater blasted into the Siberian wilderness when the unearthly rock exploded in midair. Cheko is about five overland miles (eight kilometers) from the center of the detonation... University of Bologna, Italy (http://www-th.bo.infn.it/tunguska/)
      • LIKE MATCHSTICKS: In this grainy shot taken during Leonid Kulik's 1938 aerial survey, the knocked-over trees again clearly indicate the direction of the blast's shock wave.
      • Advertisement
      • DEEP IMPACT: A massive space rock gouged out this crater about 50,000 years ago in the Arizona desert. Barringer Crater measures approximately 4,000 feet across (1,200 meters) and is 570 feet (170 meters) deep...
      • DEATH OF THE DINOSAURS: An artist’s impression of the 110-to 180-mile wide (175- to 290-kilometer) Chicxulub Crater spanning Central America's Yucatan Peninsula. A meteorite some six to 10 miles (10 to 15 kilometers) in diameter struck here about 65 million years ago... NASA
      • RECENT CRATERING: A meteorite punched out this 65-foot- (30-meter-) wide crater in Carangas, Peru, near Lake Titicaca in September 2007. Residents of the area reported small rocks raining on their roofs as well as a peal of thunder... Associated Press
      • SHOOTING STAR? OR THE NEXT TUNGUSKA?: Our planet gets pummeled by meteors continuously. This is especially apparent during the annual Perseid meteor shower in July and August as well as the Leonids of mid-November. Most of the rocks streaking across the sky are pebble-size and burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground... Mila Zinkova
      • Advertisement
      • NEW YORK NEXT TIME?: The remote Tunguska region of Russia was sparsely populated at the time of the explosion. The blast devastated an area almost three times the size of all five boroughs in New York City.
      • STILL DOWN: In 1999 a group from the University of Bologna in Italy snapped shots of flattened trees still lying on the hinterland hillsides almost a century later. University of Bologna, Italy (http://www-th.bo.infn.it/tunguska/)
      • Previous
      • Next
      of
      • View all
      • Link copied!
      • FLATTENED:
      • FELLED TREES:
      • GROUND ZERO?:
      • LIKE MATCHSTICKS:
      • DEEP IMPACT:
      • DEATH OF THE DINOSAURS:
      • RECENT CRATERING:
      • SHOOTING STAR? OR THE NEXT TUNGUSKA?:
      • NEW YORK NEXT TIME?:
      • STILL DOWN:
      Advertisement
      Advertisement

      Newsletter

      Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter.

      Sign Up

      Support Science Journalism

      Discover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.

      Subscribe Now!Support Science Journalism

      Follow us

      • instagram
      • soundcloud
      • youtube
      • twitter
      • facebook
      • rss

      Scientific american arabic

      العربية
      • Return & Refund Policy
      • About
      • Press Room
      • FAQs
      • Contact Us
      • Site Map
      • Advertise
      • SA Custom Media
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • California Consumer Privacy Statement
      • Use of cookies/Do not sell my data
      • International Editions
      Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.

      © 2023 Scientific American, a Division of Springer Nature America, Inc.

      All Rights Reserved.

      Scroll To Top

      Support science journalism.

      Scientific American paper issue and on tablet

      Thanks for reading Scientific American. Knowledge awaits.

      Already a subscriber? Sign in.

      Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue.

      Create Account

      See Subscription Options

      Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription.

      You may cancel at any time.

      Sign in.