Tunguska: One Blast. 80 Million Trees. No Crater.Episode 51:27
The Expedition That Couldn’t Reach the Blast
Leonid Kulik begins the hunt for Tunguska's impact site, only to be defeated by the landscape itself.
Watch it in the appThis episode needs All Access, from $4.99 a week.
Transcript
A herder was blown into a tree—and later died.
This happened over Siberia June 30th, 1908, around 7:15 a.m.
At Vanavara, a trading-station witness described the northern sky. The sky split in two.
The flash was brighter than the Sun, followed by thunder and falling trees.
The Soviet Academy of Sciences sent geologist Leonid A. Kulik to the site in 1921.
But the region was one of Siberia's most remote and inaccessible areas.
In 1921, Kulik could not reach the devastated area during his expedition.
Available evidence: eyewitness accounts, seismic records, infrasound and white nights in northern Europe.
In 1927, Kulik reached the Tunguska site.
Near the epicenter, trees stood stripped of branches, bark, and evidence of burning.
Later surveys mapped a butterfly-shaped destruction zone across 830 square miles.
Years later, witness S. Semenov described the instant the northern sky changed. I had just raised an axe when the northern sky split apart.
Across the devastated forest, Kulik searched for the object behind the blast.
But Kulik failed to find physical evidence of the object that caused it.
Where it leaves off
When Kulik finally entered the blast zone in 1927, a burned forest was still standing at its center.
Sources
- 1908 SIBERIA EXPLOSION: Reconstructing an Asteroid Impact from Eywitness Accounts - Planetary Science Institutepsi.edusecondary
- 115 Years Ago: The Tunguska Asteroid Impact Event - NASAnasa.govsecondary
- NASA/Technical Memorandum (NASA/TM--220174) 2018ntrs.nasa.govsecondary
- Vurdalak | Witness: S. B. Semyonovvurdalak.comprimary
The whole series is in the app.
Download on the App StoreAll Access is $4.99 a week, $14.99 a month or $39.99 a year. The annual plan starts with three days free.