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Details Emerging On Tunguska Impact Crater

#space_on_irc.freenode.net (Dusty) writes "Lake Cheko in Siberia has been noted as the probable crater of the 1908 Siberian Tunguska event. This news was discussed here in December, but details on the crater were scant. Now a new paper written by Luca Gasperini, Enrico Bonatti, and Giuseppe Longo (the same team in Bologna, Italy that made news in December) has a horde of new details on the supposed crater. The team visited Lake Cheko complete with their own catamaran and completed ground-penetrating radar maps, side-scanning sonar images, aerial images, and some sample collection of Lake Cheko. Intriguingly, they also imaged an object under the sediment that may be a fragment of the impacting body. Their paper (PDF) includes a lot more details including images, side-scanning sonar image, a 3-D view of the lake, a morphobathymetric map. It's an interesting read, these dudes are good. They plan to return this summer and drill the core if weather permits, hopefully answering the question once and for all." The same team also has a more discursive article in the current Scientific American that includes some detail on the working conditions in the Siberian summer. Think: mosquitos.

28 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. First Impact.. by Phrogman · · Score: 5, Funny

    err, post I mean

    --
    "The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
  2. Think twinkie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds.

    1. Re:Think twinkie by elrous0 · · Score: 1, Funny

      As long as dogs and cats aren't living together, we should be cool.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:Think twinkie by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Funny

      The Tunguska blast may well have been the biggest interdimensional crossrip up until the Gozer incident of 1984.

    3. Re:Think twinkie by Molochi · · Score: 3, Funny

      Just remember to answer, "Yes, I am a god."

      --
      "The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
  3. whoosh... by Thornburg · · Score: 4, Funny


    BOOOM!!!

    What else do we need to know about the Tunguska event?

    Ok, maybe it would make a cool short film by some of animation whiz. Preferably starring the squirrel from the Ice Age shorts.

  4. C'mon editors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The team visited Lake Cheko complete with their own catamaran

    Is it really that hard to spell 'cameraman' correctly? C'mon editors! Get on it!

    1. Re:C'mon editors! by Jawnn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nah, funny is spelling it "catamoron"

    2. Re:C'mon editors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      >The team visited Lake Cheko complete with their own catamaran

      Is it really that hard to spell 'cameraman' correctly? C'mon editors! Get on it!


      Catamaran is correct.

      That's because: In former Russia, your Tunguska's got a catamaran.

    3. Re:C'mon editors! by AutopsyReport · · Score: 4, Funny

      In Russia Soviet, a cat has got your Tongueska.

      --

      For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.

    4. Re:C'mon editors! by longacre · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sorry, Soviet Russia was not formed until 1922. Tunguska occurred 14 years too early for this meme.

    5. Re:C'mon editors! by Dramacrat · · Score: 1, Funny

      Katamari?

      --
      There are over 36 million lines of COBOL code in the world, and they are all raping children.
    6. Re:C'mon editors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Tunguska occurred 14 years too early for this meme.

      It's all "meme, meme, meme" with you, isn't it?

    7. Re:C'mon editors! by mazarin5 · · Score: 5, Funny

      In Czarist Russia, meme is too early for you!

      --
      Fnord.
  5. Re:Very interesting article by cavtroop · · Score: 2, Funny
    We need to increase our understanding of the frequency and effects of bolide impacts upon our planet.

    Or, increase investment in bomb shelter manufacturers :)

  6. We all know Tesla did it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you saw that documentary on him called The Prestige, you know he's capable of almost anything.

  7. RE: Siberian Summer. Think Mosquitos. by FurtiveGlancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    And vodka, and borst, and potatoes.

    --
    Invenio via vel creo
  8. All your blood are belong to us by davidwr · · Score: 4, Funny

    In Soviet Russia, Mosquito suck YOU!

    Oh ... wait ... nevermind.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  9. Re:this is not real science by fracai · · Score: 4, Funny

    yeah, The X-Files should totally have done an episode where it turns out that the Tunguska event was the land fall of aliens. They could even call the episode Tunguska!

    --
    -- i am jack's amusing sig file
  10. Re:We can check it for serial numbers :) by Dancindan84 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What self respecting scientist wouldn't go and examine the evidence? Because if it wasn't an asteroid strike... ... they may accidentally defrost Megatron!
    --
    "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
  11. Re:Pictures by Molochi · · Score: 3, Funny

    I amused that a link to goatse can be merely ruled offtopic now.

    --
    "The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
  12. Re:For those that can't seem to find it by tgd · · Score: 4, Funny

    WTF? I can get better zoom resolution on a lake in the middle of nowhere Siberia than I can get at my house!?

    Somethings just not right about that.

  13. Re:We can check it for serial numbers :) by phat_cartman · · Score: 4, Funny

    What self respecting scientist wouldn't go and examine the evidence?

    I initially read that as "What self-replicating scientist...". After that, the jokes really write themselves...
  14. Semen Semenov? Ouch. by GreyDuck · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the SciAm article's photo caption: "In this artist's conception, Semen Semenov, who witnessed the blast at a distant trading post, starts to feel the heat."

    That's... a really, really unfortunate name, dude.

    (I love that they managed to work "heat" and "conception" into a sentence about a guy named Semen.)

    --
    I'm only wearing black until they come out with something darker.
  15. Re:For those that can't seem to find it by LtCmdrJoel · · Score: 2, Funny

    No street view? WTF?

  16. Re: Mosquitos ++ by 21mhz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Accordingly to one hypothesis, the cause of the Tunguska event was a spontaneous explosive combustion of a 5 cubic km cloud of gnats.

    --
    My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
  17. Re:For those that can't seem to find it by wcrowe · · Score: 2, Funny

    Damn! It wouldn't calculate driving directions!

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
  18. Re:For those that can't seem to find it by sabt-pestnu · · Score: 3, Funny

    So move out of Area 51. Problem solved!