The Tunguska Event

In 1908 an explosion with 1000 times the force of the blast at Hiroshima leveled the forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia.

One hundred years later, we still have no real idea what happened.

There were only a few eye witnesses to this event, since it took place in one of the remotest areas of the earth, and the Russian governments were not all that interested in investigating way out there. So it was 19 years before any investigation took place.

Explanations run from as pedestrian as an asteroid exploding to angry deities smiting the earth. A mini black hole has been suggested, and an exploding UFO.

But at this point, 100 years later, there is still no evidence to support any theory.

I have to think that if it were an explosion, there would have been some residue, although the proponents of the exploding asteroid say that all remnants disintegrated in the atmosphere.

Imagine what it must have been like as a trapper or a trader in that lonely area to have the sky split open and 800 square miles of forest destroyed. One man described it as “The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire Northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn't bear it, as if my shirt was on fire” Very likely, these people thought that Hell itself was raining down on them, and that Armageddon was indeed at hand. Imagine if this had happened over London, or New York. Siberia was pretty much uninhabited, but that ind of destruction could have killed thousands.

No matter what it is, it is the biggest event ever witnessed on earth, at least during recorded times. And no matter what we believe, we still don't KNOW what it was.