Tunguska 1908: Airburst, Missing Body, and the Intercept-Device Theory

At about 7:15 on the morning of June 30, 1908, the sky above the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia turned bright. The region belonged to the Russian Empire then and lies in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region today. Evenki reindeer herders and people at distant stations saw a glowing body cross the sky. Then came a sound like thunder. Some people were thrown to the ground, camps were damaged, and fires spread through the taiga.

Almost twenty years later, mineralogist Leonid Kulik reached the place believed to be the blast center. He did not find a giant crater or a large meteorite. He found trees lying in a butterfly-shaped pattern, while trees near the center were still standing with their branches and bark stripped away. The marks showed that immense energy had spread through the air before reaching the ground.