Tunguska event
powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River
AI overview
In 1908, a powerful explosion occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in remote Siberia, flattening an estimated 80 million trees over an area of about 2,150 square kilometers. Scientists believe it was likely caused by a meteor or comet exploding in the atmosphere, and studying it has helped us understand the potential dangers of impacts from space objects and improved our knowledge of how such explosions behave.
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Article
The Tunguska event was a large explosion of between 3–50 megatons TNT equivalent that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia, on the morning of 30 June [O.S. 17 June] 1908.
The explosion over the sparsely populated East Siberian taiga felled a large number of trees, over an area of 2,150 km (830 sq mi) of forest, and eyewitness accounts suggest up to three people may have died. The explosion is attributed to a meteor air burst, the atmospheric explosion of a stony asteroid about 50–60 m (160–200 ft) wide.