Abstract
The explosion over Tunguska, Central Siberia, in 1908 released 10 to 20 megatons (high explosive equivalent) of energy at an altitude of about 10 km. This event represents a typical fate for stony asteroids tens of metres in radius entering the Earth's atmosphere at common hypersonic velocities. Comets and carbonaceous asteroids of the appropriate energy disrupt too high, whereas typical iron objects reach and crater the terrestrial surface.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kulik, L. A. Dokl. Acad. Nauk SSSR 23, 399–402 (1927).
Baxter, J. & Atkins, T. The Fire Came By (Doubleday, Garden City NY, 1976).
Whipple, F. J. W. Q.Jl R. met. Soc. 56, 287–304 (1930).
Krinov, E. L. Giant Meteorites (Pergamon, Oxford, 1966).
Shoemaker, E. M. A. Rev. Earth planet. Sci. 11, 461–494 (1983).
Cowan, C., Atluri, C. R. & Libby, W. F. Nature 206, 861–865.
Jackson, A. A. & Ryan, M. P. Nature 245, 88–89 (1973).
Fesenkov, V. G. Sov. Astr. 5, 441–451 (1962).
Petrov, G. I. & Stulov, V. P. Cosmic Res. 13, 525–531 (1975).
Liu, V. C. Geophys. Res. Lett. 5, 309–312 (1978).
Park, C. Acta astronaut. 5, 523–542 (1978).
Turco, R. P. et al. Icarus 50, 1–52 (1982).
Folinsbee, R. E., Douglas, J. A. V. & Maxwell, J. A. Geochim. cosmochim. Acta 31, 1625–1635 (1967).
Hunt, J. N., Palmer, R. & Penney, W. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 252, 275–315 (1960).
Ben-Menahem, A. Phys. Earth planet. Int. 11, 1–35 (1975).
Zolotov, A. V. Sov. Phys. Dokl. 12, 101–104 (1967).
Ganapathy, R. Science 220, 1158–1161 (1983).
Rocchia, R. et al. in Global Catastrophes in Earth History (eds Sharpton, V. L. & Ward, P. D.), 189–193 (Geol. Soc. Am. SP-247, Boulder CO, 1990).
Neftel, A., Beer, J., Oeschger, H., Zücher, F. & Finkel, R. C. Nature 314, 611–613 (1985).
Sekanina, Z. Astr. J. 88, 1382–1414 (1983).
Levin, B. Yu. & Bronshten, V. A. Meteoritics 21, 199–215 (1986).
Korobeinikov, V. P., Chushkin, P. I. & Shursnalov, L. V. Acta astronaut. 3, 615–622 (1976).
Zotkin, I. T. & Tsikulin, M. A. Sov. Phys. Dokl. 11, 183–186 (1966).
Baldwin, B. & Sheaffer, Y. J. geophys. Res. 76, 4653–4668 (1971).
Bronshten, V. A. Physics of Meteoric Phenomena (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1983).
Melosh, H. J. Impact Cratering (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 1989).
Chyba, C. F., Thomas, P. J., Brookshaw, L. & Sagan, C. Science 249, 366–373 (1990).
Walker, J. C. G. Icarus 68, 87–98 (1986).
Zahnle, K. J. J. geophys. Res. 97, 10,243–10,255 (1992).
Biberman, L. M., Bronin, S. Ya. & Brykin, M. V. Acta astronaut. 7, 53–65 (1980).
Passey, Q. R. & Melosh, H. J. Icarus 42, 211–233 (1980).
Grigoryan, S. S. Cosmic Res. 17, 724–740 (1979).
Grieve, R. A. F. in Geological Implications of Impacts of Large Asteroids and Comets on the Earth (eds Silver, L. T. & Schultz, P. H.) 25–37 (Geol. Soc. Am. SP-190, Boulder CO, 1982).
Seiff, A. in Gas Dynamics in Space Exploration, 19–32 (NASA SP-24, 1962).
Öpik, E. J. Physics of Meteor Flight in the Atmosphere (Interscience, New York, 1958).
Ivanov, B. A., Basilevsky, A. T., Kryuchkov, V. P. & Chernaya, I. M. J. geophys. Res. 91, D413–D430 (1986).
Sekanina, Z. in Comets (ed. Wilkening, L. L.), 251–287 (Univ. of Arizona, 1982).
Hoerner, S. F. Fluid-Dynamic Drag (Hoerner, Midland Park NJ, 1965).
NOAA U.S. Standard Atmosphere, 1976 (U.S. Govt Printing Office, Washington DC, 1976).
Chyba, C. F. Icarus 92, 217–233 (1991).
Weissman, P. R. in Global Catastrophes in Earth History (eds Sharpton, V. L. & Ward, P. D.), 171–180 (Geol. Soc. Am. SP-247, Boulder CO, 1990).
Peale, S. J. Icarus 82, 36–49 (1989).
Glasstone, S. & Dolan, P. J. The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (Dept of Defense, Washington DC 1977).
Jones, E. M. & Kodis, J. W. in Geological Implications of Impacts of Large Asteroids and Comets on the Earth (eds Silver, L. T. & Schultz, P. H.) 175–186 (Geol. Soc. Am. SP-190, Boulder CO, 1982).
ReVelle, D. O. J. geophys. Res. 81, 1217–1230 (1976).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chyba, C., Thomas, P. & Zahnle, K. The 1908 Tunguska explosion: atmospheric disruption of a stony asteroid. Nature 361, 40–44 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1038/361040a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/361040a0
This article is cited by
-
New meteoroid entry method with a deformable non-spherical N-body model
Acta Mechanica Sinica (2024)
-
A review of common natural disasters as analogs for asteroid impact effects and cascading hazards
Natural Hazards (2023)
-
Reply to: Arguments for a comet as cause of the Hopewell airburst are unsubstantiated
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
Experiments on the separation of sphere clusters in hypersonic flow
Experiments in Fluids (2021)
-
The Science of Sungrazers, Sunskirters, and Other Near-Sun Comets
Space Science Reviews (2018)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.