On June 30, 1908, a giant explosion shook the remote forests of Siberia, flattening millions of trees and unleashing a blast heard hundreds of miles away. The Tunguska Event remains one of the most mysterious disasters in recorded history. Despite decades of investigation, the cause of the blast continues to puzzle scientists and fuel speculation – mainly because there was no evidence or impact site to be found.
Aerial shot of the Tunguska explosion. Courtesy of Bologna University via Medium.com
Modern map of Russia in comparison to Tunguska event. Courtesy of Wikipedia and NASA.gov
Photograph from 1927 of fallen trees around the Tunguska event site. Courtesy of Wikicommons, the Soviet Academy of Science and Saint Louis Science Center
Tunguska Event epicenter. Courtesy of Bettman, Getty Images and Atlas Obscura
Episode Source Material
BOOKS:
- Baxter, John, and Thomas R. Atkins. 1976. The Fire Came by: The Riddle of the Great Siberian Explosion. 1st ed. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday.
- Bruno, Andy. 2022. Tunguska. A Siberian Mystery and Its Environmental Legacy. Kindle. Cambridge University Press.
- Stonehill, Paul, Philip Mantle, and Noe Torres. 2017. Russia’s Roswell incident: and other amazing UFO cases from the former Soviet Union. Kindle.
- Verma, Surendra. 2021. The Mystery Of The Tunguska Fireball: Completely Revised and Updated 2021 Edition of the Most Popular Book on the Riddle of the Great Siberian Explosion of 1908. Kindle. Icon Books Ltd.
- Applebaum, Anne. 2004. Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps. Kindle. London: Penguin Books.
ACADEMIC PAPERS:
- Rubtsov, Vladimir. 2013. “Reconstruction of the Tunguska Event of 1908: Neither an Asteroid, Nor a Comet Core.” arXiv.
- Tsuchida, Hiromi, and Peter Del Tredici. 1993. “Hibaku Trees of Hiroshima.” Arnoldia 53 (January):24–29.
- Gladysheva, Olga G. 2024. “The Structure of the Tunguska Comet.” Earth and Planetary Science 3 (1): 1–8.
- Rasmussen, Kaare L., Henrk B. Clausen, and Gregory W. Kallemeyn. 1995. “No Iridium Anomaly after the 1908 Tunguska Impact: Evidence from a Greenland Ice Core.” Meteoritics 30 (6): 634–38.
- Rasmussen, K.L., H.B. Clausen, and T. Risbo. 1984. “Nitrate in the Greenland Ice Sheet in the Years Following the 1908 Tunguska Event.” Icarus 58 (1): 101–8.
- Silagadze, Zurab. 2003. “Tunguska Genetic Anomaly and Electrophonic Meteors.” Acta Physica Polonica Series B 36 (December).
WEB / SOCIAL MEDIA / MESSAGE BOARDS:
- Mathewson, Samantha. 2016. “How Often Do Meteorites Hit the Earth?”
- Choi, Charles. 2022. “How Many Meteorites Hit Earth Every Year?”
- Kuthunur, Sharmila. 2024. “Rock That Punched Hole in New Jersey House Confirmed to Be 4.6 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite.”
- Uri, John. 2023. “115 Years Ago: The Tunguska Asteroid Impact Event.”
- Calar Alto Observatory. n.d. “A Not so Borealis Aurora.”
- Travel All Russia. n.d. “What You Didn’t Know About Siberia.”
- Unknown. n.d. “Russian Acquisition and Migration.” Meeting of Frontiers.
- USGS. n.d. “Earthquake Science Timeline.” Earthquake Hazards Program.
- “Glasatovo.” n.d. Meteoritical Bulletin Database.
- Tesla, Nikola. 1905. “Tesla On The Peary North Pole Expedition.” New York Sun, July 16, 1905.
- Barnett, Richard. 2015. “The Greatest Geek.” London Review of Books.
- Binkovitz, Leah. 2013. “Tesla at the Smithsonian: The Story Behind His Genius.” At The Smithsonian (blog).
- Blakemore, Erin. 2016. “Nikola Tesla and the Death Ray Craze.” JSTOR Daily (blog).
- Nichelson, Oliver. 1990. “The Death Ray of Nikola Tesla.” Fate, January 1990.
- “Selected Tesla Writings.” n.d. Twenty-First Century Books.
- “Selection of Studies out of More than 130 Composed by Alexander Petrovich Kazantsev (Russia, 1906-2002).” n.d. ARVES.
- “Nagasaki Kusunoki Project.” n.d.
- Forrest, Maura. 206AD. “From Northern Lights to Nuclear Bombs.” Yukon News.
- Aym, Terrence. 2010. “History Mystery: Tunguska Explosion of 1908.” Salem-News.Com.
- Talbert, Tricia. 2018. “Five Years after the Chelyabinsk Meteor: NASA Leads Efforts in Planetary Defense.”
- “Chelyabinsk.” n.d. Meteoritical Bulletin Database.
- Atkinson, Nancy. n.d. “Scientist Claims UFO Collided with Tunguska Meteorite to Save Earth.” Universe Today (blog).
- “Comets.” n.d.
- “Asteroid or Meteor: What’s the Difference?” n.d.
- Mann, Adam. 2021. “What Is Antimatter?”
- Kwon, Diana. 2015. “Ten Things You Might Not Know about Antimatter.” Symmetry Magazine.