Posted
June 27, 2013
A
column of blue light shot across the sky. A few Russians saw it and
wondered what on earth it could be.
(Hint:
it wasn't ON Earth.)
Ka-Blam!
A
boom and a flash, and a shock wave that knocked people off their
feet. Windows broke.
Luckily
for those people, they were really far away from the explosion. The
living things nearby weren't so lucky: 80 MILLION trees were knocked
down! The felled trees were arranged in a circular pattern with the an epicenter near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, in Russia.
What
caused this huge explosion, which happened on this date in 1908?
Scientists
believe that the Tunguska event was an “airburst” of a large
meteoroid or comet. It was rushing toward the Earth at great speeds
and began to burn up in our atmosphere. When it was three to six
miles (5 – 10 km) away from Earth's surface, apparently, the
meteoroid or comet got so hot it exploded. It was the shock wave from
this explosion—basically, the air that was pushed strongly and rapidly away from
the exploding body—that caused the trees to fall.
Even though the meteoroid or comet burst in the air rather than hit the Earth's surface, this event is still referred to as a meteor (or comet) impact. As a matter fact, it is the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history. The explosion was about a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
If
the event had happened in a populated area, it would have destroyed an entire city!
Partly
because of this event, many people are working on a way to protect
ourselves from other, possibly even larger meteoroid, asteroid, and
comet impacts. Read about “laser bees” here, the Don Quijote plan here,
and paintball planetary protection here!
Also
on this date:
Did
you hear that Nik Wallenda crossed Niagara Falls on Friday, June 15,
2012, for the first time in history? Well, Wallenda's crossing was at
the widest, wildest, wettest spot. This 1859 crossing (by a guy named
Gravelet) was a lot tamer because it was higher up on the river. (But
Gravelet later crossed the Falls on a tightrope while blindfolded,
then while pushing a wheelbarrow, then on stilts, and then while
carrying another man!!!)
Plan
ahead:
Here are my Pinterest pages on July
holidays, historical
anniversaries in July,
and July
birthdays.
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