Something awesome changed
Tunguska in central Siberia forever.
Apparently a small comet or meteor hurtling through
space collided with the Earth and exploded in the sky.
It's estimated energy output was equal to
20 million tonnes of TNT, 1,000 Hiroshima bombs.
Over 60 million trees were downed.
2,200 square km. were wiped out.
The 1st expedition to reach the site was led
by Russian scientist L.A.Kullik in 1938.
Photo Of The Site In 1938
He was amazed to find so much devastation but no crater.
Even today no one is sure what happened.
Russian experiments show that a major explosion
occurred in the atmosphere above the earth.
They had used match sticks to simulate trees,
and detonated a small explosive above it.
This was the only way to gat the same pattern
of damage as was found at Tunguska.
Trees in the center of the devastation had actually
been left standing as were match sticks
directly under the explosive charge.
1999
To search for answers, a 2nd University of Bologna
expedition is about to travel to the isolated region
w/ a jumble of high-tech equipment.
Dr Luigi Foschini, told BBC News Online that
one of their main aims will be the study
of sediments at the bottom of Lake Ceko.
Lake Ceko is 8km (five miles) away
from the centre of the 1908 explosion.
It is about 500 m wide and 47m deep.
"We will be using a 'sub bottom penetration system,'
to make a structural map of it to decide where
to drill for samples from the lake bed,"
he said.
Side Scan Sonar will take ultrasound photographs of the lake bottom.
A remote-controlled, underwater telecamera will also be used.
Undisturbed samples will be collected by using a "box
corer."
Foschini hopes to collect microparticles from the disintegration
of the cosmic body to determine once and for all what it was.
They will also continue a search for
microparticles preserved in tree resin.
This was carried out on the earlier expedition in 1991.
The researchers will also undertake an aerial survey of the region
and compare their data with that obtained in 1938 by Kullik.
This microparticle was recovered in 1991
The comparison between the 1938 pictures and
the new survey should give further information on
the direction of the trees felled by the explosion.
Some scientists believe that large fragments may have
reached the ground before the main impact.
If the cosmic body was a meteorite, then it
may be possible to find these fragments.
A search will be made for them amongst
the ground rocks of Tunguska using
neodymium magnets and metal detectors. |