Tunguska Crater Found?

By Hannah Welham

As if the Siberians don’t have enough to deal with in the first place, it would appear they’re also now at the centre of a web of sci-fi speculation surrounding the mystery of the Tunguska event.

For those of you new to the topic here’s a recap: back in 1908 there was a massive explosion over Siberia as an extra-terrestrial body of some kind entered the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded with the same force as 1,000 Hiroshima bombs.

80 million trees were flattened by the blast which produced a shock wave that knocked people off their feet and broke windows hundreds of miles away.

"No story about Tunguska would be complete without some truly whacky explanations. Tin foil hats at the ready please..."

The funny thing was that there was no clue to what actually caused the mess; there wasn’t even a crater left behind. I bet you can hear that X-Files theme tune already!

There’s been plenty of speculation over the years as to just what went on. Most recently an Italian team seem to have come up with one vaguely sensible theory on the subject.

A team from Bologna travelled out to Lake Cheko, about five miles from the explosion epicentre, which they believed could be a Tunguska crater impact site. Assuming that the main explosion occurred a three to five miles above ground then it’s quite possible remaining debris would have travelled this far before smashing down. (Where is Tunguska?)

Their evidence seems, in my humble opinion, to be fairly plausible: crater-like proportions, a unique funnel base, and compacted sediment structures. Apparently though this isn’t enough to satisfy those who actually know something about astrophysics.

One carnivorous critic who won’t let go of the bone is Dr Gareth Collins. He states that “The impact cratering community [?!] does not accept structures as craters unless there is evidence of high temperatures and high pressures”, along with numerous other quibbles.

The Italians are stubbornly clutching to their hypothesis, planning a return journey to the site in 2008. At this point I’d love to say I’d hedge my bets with them but one statement from the team has dissuaded me just a little, I think you’ll understand why: “We have no positive proof this is an impact crater, but we were able to exclude some other hypotheses, and this led to our conclusion.” Hmmm…..

Of course no story about Tunguska would be complete without some truly whacky explanations. Tin foil hats at the ready please...

First up is Jackson and Ryan’s black hole theory based, very imaginatively I’ll grant them, on the possibility that a black hole shot through the Earth all that time ago. Fair enough, but doesn’t it seem to be taking it’s time coming out the other side?

Then we’ve got the 1960’s brainwave (or not) that the whole thing was caused by a big fallout of antimatter. Not to worry though folks, there isn’t actually enough of the stuff around so we’re not in any immediate danger of this one being anywhere near true.

I’ve been trying to put these into some kind of order of plausibility/laughable hilarity but I really am stumped to pick between these last two. I’ll leave it up to you to decide your personal favourite:

A UFO travelled light years through interstellar space to make contact with Earth only to muck the whole thing up on the final furlong and explode just miles from its destination.

Electrical genius Nikola Tesla was testing out his latest toy from his research station on Long Island. In 1915 he claimed that he had already created an electro-weapon: “great destructive effects can be produced at any point on the globe, defined beforehand with great accuracy”. Where better than choose than pre-revolutionary Russia?