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Tunguska Impact Crater Found?
BigBadBus writes in with a claim by an Italian team that they may have found an impact crater resulting from the 1908 Tunguska explosion over Siberia. The BBC story quotes a number of impact experts who doubt the Italians' claim. "A University of Bologna team says a lake near the epicenter of the blast may be occupying a crater hollowed out by a chunk of rock that hit the ground. Lake Cheko — though shallow — fits the proportions of a small, bowl-shaped impact crater, say the Italy-based scientists. Their investigation of the lake bottom's geology reveals a funnel-like shape not seen in neighboring lakes. In addition, a geophysics survey of the lake bed has turned up an unusual feature about 10m down which could either be compacted lake sediments or a buried fragment of space rock."
Dr. Stanz approves.
University of Bologna? My crater has a first name, it's T-u-n-g-u-s-k-a...
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
They said MAMMA MIA!!!!
Areal view of what was believed to be the original impact site and Lake Cheko.
:)
I'm no geologist so I can't comment on whether or not this lake looks typical but I will say that, judging by the coloration of the foliage around it, this is probable the same land as the river/stream that winds to the west of it. Interesting is that if you follow it northwest for miles it looks smooth cut. Once it passes Lake Cheko, it seems to become more speckled and pock marked. Doesn't seem 'natural' to me for an inlet and outlet to be positioned so close together on a lake--though the topography could indeed make that make sense if I could see a map of it.
I would guess this is quite feasible indeed to be part of whatever happened nearly 100 years ago. Check out the last page of this PDF which seems to show the comet/asteroid approaching at an angle (thus the strange blast pattern). At that trajectory, you'd think there'd be a chance for whatever hit to break apart and skip. Maybe the other abnormal marks in the stream are from other pieces/debris?
Probably fueled by the sci-fi stories written about the same topic (like the 1946 one by Alexander Kazantsev), I find it interesting to read about things like the Tunguska Genetic Anomaly whether they be true or not. Maybe these are the scientist's tabloids?
My work here is dung.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
If this is in fact the real impact site, shouldn't there be elevated iridium levels in the lake sediments, as is usually found at other impact sites? I guess "prove" is too strong a term, but I'd challenge anyone to find an alternate explanation for elevated iridium, if found.
After the many expeditions to Tunguska, wouldn't one of them have noticed a crater shaped lake? From what I saw on a documentary about it the first expedition drained and dug in every hole they found in that swamp.
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Now what would we find at this site if it were the tunguska impact crater? since it was likely mostly ice/volatiles mixed with some rocky material would it be fair to say that we wouldnt be finding evidence of shok metamorphosis when the volatiles likely carried off most of the heat? for that matter, would there even be a single crater when the original object shattered as it did? wouldnt it be likely that several small impacts form and over the years erode?
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
An official with the University of Horseshit was quoted as saying "That's not a lake, that's partially liquified alien spaceships.". Reached for a response prior to teaching a class at the College of Bullcrap, Professor Dumbass had the following to say, "Well, it could be a meteor, it could be a meatball, who can say really?"
Shocked quartz could solve the matter once and for all.
Trees standing near the impact site aren't that big of an anomaly, although they do point to an airborne explosion. IIRC some of the witnesses reported that there were standing trees, and modeling of the event (as well as other powerful explosions which occurred at an altitude) have left standing trees, edifaces, and so on, directly below the force of explosion.
Personally, I'm still hoping for Tesla's Death Ray
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The most they will ever find is a nano sized cave where it traveled through the earth at near-light speed before going about its way after popping out through an ocean on the other side....
tm
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Exactly. At some point, the plot has to actually work. X Files rocked, but Carter got caught up in the 'revealing for the sake of revealing' treadmill.... His thematic story shows -- meant to connect and be going some where -- never really went anywhere. I think the stand-alone episodes ended up carrying the series....
Heh, one of my favorite parts is when Skully gives up her baby like she's returning a movie.
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
Since no man has discovered the blast site until now, how do we know the object is not composed of highly dangerous contaminants/heavy metals that humans have not discovered yet?
Oh, and I just bet you doubters have a better explanation for a hole in the ground full of water? I thought not.
Life needs more saving throws.
Follow up with, are there other lakes that didn't exist before the explosion, but do since?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The Tunguska explosion happened because George Bush doesn't care about Black Oil.
It's not a troll. It's called humor. And it's entirely ontopic and appropriate as well - the article basically has a bunch of people saying "it might be some shit" but they have no proof whatsoever. They claim to have ruled out several other possibilities which led them to the "conclusion" (how do you come to a conclusion with no evidence?) that it was the Tunguska impact crater. Now let's see, how many problems are there with this?
Now, if they dig into this lake and figure out what the submerged lump in it is, which might be a rock and might just be a lump of sediment, then this will be more interesting. But this is a completely non-story story. There are no facts here, other than that some people have made an assumption which might or might not be warranted, because they lacked imagination to come up with hypotheses they couldn't shoot down.
A better title would be "Scientists believe they have located Tunguska Crater without corroborating evidence".
Parent comment, even if intended to be a joke just about the name of the Uni (I do not believe it is, based on having RTFA, shock amazement) is still entirely apt. Perhaps the bonehead who modded it troll should check out the moderation guidelines?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Tunguska is big, really big..
And extremely remote. It's not even slightly surprising that this was missed.
The original expidition didn't head to the impact site until years after the event, and still they found a devastated surface, and no-one went back again for a very long time.
Until fairly recently it just wasn't feasable to do any kind of large scale study of the region. I think people sometimes forget just how barking huge our planet is, you'd be amazed at the number of area's that are still effectivelly blanks on the map, or mapped by air/satellite only.
Reality is that which, when we cease to believe in it, still exists. - Philip K Dick
No. However, it was a poorly surveyed area, so non-existence of (prior) evidence is not evidence of (prior) non-existence.
Ben Hocking
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Mmmm.... University of Bologna ...
As I foreigner who doesn't get the joke, anybody explain this for us dummies? Some commercial we missed?
--
From Wiki:
The University of Bologna (Italian: Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is the oldest continually operating degree-granting university in the world, and the second largest university in Italy. It is located in the city of Bologna. The University of Bologna was the first university founded in the western world (AD 1088) and since 2000, its motto has been Alma mater studiorum (Latin for "fostering mother of studies"; cf. Alma mater). The university received a charter from Frederick I Barbarossa in 1158, but in the 19th century, a committee of historians led by Giosuè Carducci traced the birth of the University back to 1088. The University celebrated its 900th anniversary in 1988, making it arguably the longest-lived occidental university.
I'm so tired of hearing "researchers" talk about the certainties of their discoveries. This is a breath of fresh air:
"We have no positive proof this is an impact crater, but we were able to exclude some other hypotheses, and this led us to our conclusion," Professor Longo, the research team leader, told BBC News.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
Wikipedia:
Bologna sausage is an American version of the Italian mortadella (a finely hashed/ground pork sausage with lard pieces, which originated in the Italian city of Bologna). The American version can alternatively be made out of chicken, turkey, beef, pork, or soybeans. It is commonly called bologna and often pronounced (by hypercorrection) and/or spelled baloney. The "baloney" pronunciation can be used to mean "lies" and/or to express disbelief (see below).
The most widely accepted explanation for not finding the crater is that there isn't one: Most geologists believe the Tunguska object exploded in the air. (This sounds crazy, but it's apparently possible - just as a person doing a belly flop off a cliff is going to be killed by the impact, a meteor can be destroyed by the impact with the lower atmosphere.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
Clear, Dark Skies
..the losers who try to take television seriously.They waste hours making cunts of themselves by arguing online with other fanboys about faggoty shit like "mytharcs" or character motivations, while completely unaware, ironically, how pathetic they look. So what's faggier, having an interest in science fiction or having nothing better to occupy your life with than trolling people on topics you have no interest in? I see your insult of "cunt" and raise you by two "wank-stains."
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
"an unusual feature about 10m down which could either be compacted lake sediments or a buried fragment of space rock"
"Sir we found an anomaly at the bottom of the lake."
"Well, what could it be?"
"It's either dirt, or a ROCK FROM OUTER SPACE!!!"
Slow Down, Cowboy! It's been 60 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment.
Funny that as an Italian i never had the slightest idea on why americans put the Bologna name on the pork sausage ...
Actually, any searches for Bologna invariably returns the city, unless you actually search for "Bologna Meat" which returns this:
American Bologna sandwich meat got its name from the northern Italian town of Bologna. But this favorite of kid's lunches is not the same as the distinctively spiced Italian original, called Mortadella and made in the villages around Bologna, a major trading spot. Traders may have picked up the sausage in Bologna, and the town became identified with the sausage. By the late 19th century in England and America, "bologna" had become the generic name for any type of pork sausage from the Italian town.
Which solves the mistery, except that i would add that "Bologna" evolved to something completely different than Mortadella.
We learn from history that we learn nothing from history - Tom Veneziano
Here is an About.com article that talks about it more. http://paranormal.about.com/cs/earthmysteries/a/aa 021604.htm
The text below is lifted from this site: http://prometheus.al.ru/english/phisik/onichelson/ tunguska.htm
Tesla was just enough of a mad scientist to make what would otherwise sound kooky, at least somewhat plausible.
Ground Zero = 6055N, 10157E (approximately)
Google maps doesn't have much detail, but Google Earth is much better
You can make out individual trees, but I do not see much in terms of individual logs in the blast pattern. Using the BBC info as a guide, you can easily see Lake Cheko
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I call bullshit simply based on the question of where the hell Tesla would have gotten the ~80 petajoules of energy needed for a 20 megaton explosion, regardless of how wonderful his deathray may have been. Even if he was charging some massive bank of capacitors for a year, that would require 2.5GW for the whole year, which is utterly ridiculous for 1908.
himi
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