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No. 5: November 1978

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70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TUNGUSKA EVENT

Rich reviews the facts known about the fall and detonation of the famous 1908 "meteor." That this was no ordinary meteor is born out by several curious data:

  1. Tree-rings in the area show an enormous acceleration of growth since 1908;
  2. Inhabitants of this remote region stated that the reindeer suffered from mysterious scabs in 1908;
  3. There is a slight but definite increase in the radioactivity of the surviving trees; and
  4. Testimony indicates that the me-teor changed direction twice before impact.
The various theories of what really happened, from black hole to nuclear explosion, are listed without comment.

(Rich, Vera; "The 70-Year-Old Mystery of Siberia's Big Bang." Nature, 274:207, 1978.)

From Science Frontiers #5, November 1978. � 1978-2000 William R. Corliss