More Theories on Tunguska

<em>Science</em> ^ | Sept. 13, 2002 | Constance Holden

[aruanan]

On 30 June 1908, in the remote Tunguska forest of Siberia, a vast explosion charred and flattened trees across an area nearly as large as Rhode Island. Scientists have long been mystified as to the cause, although prevailing wisdom has it that it was an extraterrestrial chunk of ice or rock (Science, 20 August 1999, p. 1205).

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Tunguska epicenter today.

CREDIT: VITALII ROMEIKO

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But two scientists last week rejected the "E.T. hypothesis" at a conference on environmental catastrophes in London. Andrei Ol'khovatov, formerly of the Soviet Radio Instrument Industry Research Institute, noted that no one has ever found definitive traces of extraterrestrial material. There's no impact crater, and some trees near the epicenter were left untouched.

Wolfgang Kundt, an astrophysicist at Bonn University, Germany, proposed an alternative scenario: a massive gas explosion. A large natural gas deposit lies below the site, a well-known fact unconnected to the event until now, he said. Kundt has modeled a Tunguska "outgassing" and says it would fit with eyewitness accounts.

"The geophysical hypothesis could be the answer," says Jesús Martínez-Frías of the Institute of Astrobiology in Madrid, Spain. But Ol'khovatov believes the explosion was caused by a "strong coupling between subterranean and meteorological phenomena" that science is not yet ready to understand.

[aruanan]

See The Origin of Methane (and Oil) in the Crust of the Earth by Thomas Gold.

[aruanan]

This looked like something you'd like.

[commish]

That would have been one hell of an earth fart!

[razorback-bert]

bump

[Vidalia]

It was a fart of the God(s), if you believe in that sort of thaing, otherwise, the universe simply let loose a "cheeser" that did not hurt anyone...

[MrJingles]

I'm glad somebody's talking sense about the Tunguska thing. Too bad Art Bell is retiring. I guess we can take off our tin-foil hats now.

[per loin]

And how are the sighting of the object streaking through the sky explained? Was that gas bubble having a premonition?

[Dog Gone]

I suppose that's possible, although this could be pretty easily ruled in or out by any competent geologist. It would require a shallow high pressure reservoir (unlikely right there) which is suddenly fractured (presumably by earthquake) with an enormous release to the surface of a couple hundred billion cubic feet of methane.

Presumably there is a campfire or other ignition source in the immediate vicinity.

The odds of this being the culprit behind Tunguska are very remote.

[COB1]

"The odds of this being the culprit behind Tunguska are very remote."

I agree, dog.
If we were talking about methane collecting in a valley from a shallow gas bearing sand, then suddenly exploding due to static electricity, I could buy that.
But I can't buy gas collecting in an area the size of Rhode Island!

The second possibilty is equally remote:
A deep high pressure sand is somehow suddenly relieved of it's overburden pressure and blows out.
The blowing out of the amount of gas necessary for that kind of explosion in that short of a time period is an unrealistic scenario.

[RightWhale]

I guess we can take off our tin-foil hats now.

Keep that hat handy. Art's replacement is a lot like Art.

[karlamayne]

I read somewhere once [sorry I can't quote it] that Nicola Telsa was doing some massive experiment at that exact time involving the earth's magnetic field and the transmission of electricity.

[razorback-bert]

Hey, with further thought this works for me, I just remembered that Project Blue Book use to blame UFOs on swamp gas.


I am dealing with a "know it all geologist" right now ,will ask him.

[cmsgop]

the universe simply let loose a "cheeser"

Was it Drippy like a Chedder aged on a dashboard of a Pinto in Palm Springs.......?

[cmsgop]

So you are saying the Earth "BLEW THE BOWL" !!!!!!!!!!!

[Vidalia]

Thanks for keeping this pic alive.

It is unReel.

Good job on the slo mo of the slob-child of Bill and Hillary.

Gee, where did ya get it:::?

[ALS]

[aruanan]

It would require a shallow high pressure reservoir (unlikely right there) which is suddenly fractured (presumably by earthquake) with an enormous release to the surface of a couple hundred billion cubic feet of methane.

And yet gaseous explosions are quite often associated with earthquakes. Also, some earthquakes may themselves be due to structural failure of rock and the release of vast quantities of methane, with or without subsequent ignition. Although it was believed previously that the fires of the San Francisco earthquake were due to broken gas mains, there is evidence that they were not due entirely to this.

In addition, methane hydrates are found not only underwater but in the tundra. A sufficiently large atmospheric blast due, say, to a chunk of comet, could provide enough pressure to destabilize large amounts of hydrate resulting in a near instantaneous release and subsequent ignition of the gas.

[VadeRetro]

The thing blew up in the air, like an air-burst Hiroshima bomb only bigger. Modeling shows that a stony meteorite would do that, or any icy body like a comet. An iron meteorite of comparable size would augur all the way in, so that's one thing that can be eliminated.

[VadeRetro]

... would augur all the way in ...

It augurs poorly that I forgot the difference between auger and augur.

[Calvin Locke]

This is *ALL* propaganda put out by the anti-smoking Nazis, IMO. Can't smoke anywhere.