The 1908 Tunguska blast flattened roughly 2,000 square kilometers of Siberian forest, although estimates range from about 1,300 to nearly 2,150 square kilometers. Reference accounts describe the felled trees as radiating from the epicenter; the video instead presents a non-radial “butterfly” pattern and proposes that Carolina-bay-like swamps nearby may be blast-formed. Some trees remained standing after losing their branches and bark, while hills sheltered other stands. Nineteen years later, an expedition found both regrowth and continuing damage.
Tunguska blast flattened about 2,000 square kilometers of Siberian forest
Key facts
- Published estimates vary: 1,287 square kilometers according to the Royal Museums Greenwich, about 2,000 according to Britannica, and nearly 2,150 according to Wikipedia.
- At roughly 2,000 square kilometers, the flattened area was more than three times the size of Atlanta's city area.
- Reference accounts describe the felled trees as forming a radial pattern. The video characterizes the overall zone as a non-radial “butterfly,” which should be presented as the video's interpretation.
- Some trees near the epicenter remained standing but were stripped of branches and bark, while hills sheltered other stands.
- The video proposes that shallow, elliptical, Carolina-bay-like swamps near the epicenter may have been formed by the blast.
- A 1927 expedition, 19 years after the event, documented both regrowth and continuing damage.
Sources
Tunguska event - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
The Tunguska event is the largest impact event on Earth in recorded ... butterfly-shaped blast patterns similar to the pattern found at the Tunguska site.
THE TUNGUSKA EXPLOSION OF 1908icr.org
The Tunguska explosion occurred on the morning of June 30, 1908 at 7:17 AM local time (0h 17m 11s UT) in the area of the Stony Tunguska River.
The Tunguska event - Mensamensa.org.uk
Kulik described finding an 830-square-mile butterfly-shaped area of destruction and around 80 million uprooted trees. In the years that followed ...
Tunguska Event - Armagh Observatory and Planetariumarmagh.space
It was a visitor from outer space: a comet or asteroid explosively disintegrated in the atmosphere and caused a great amount of damage locally. The Tunguska ...
115 Years Ago: The Tunguska Asteroid Impact Event - NASAnasa.gov
... butterfly-shaped area of destruction of 830 square miles extending nine to 22 miles from the epicenter with millions of trees knocked over.
The Tunguska event explainedrmg.co.uk
After the blast, 1287 square kilometres of forest were flattened, with 80,000,000 trees felled - clearing an area larger than London.
When the Sky Split in Two: The Tunguska Eventshop.minimuseum.com
An estimated 80 million trees were flattened, and for nights after the skies over Eurasia could be seen glowing. a 5-mile patch of forest full of scorched ...
Tunguska event | Summary, Cause, & Factsbritannica.com
The Tunguska event on June 30, 1908, flattened some 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) and charred over 100 square km of pine forest near the ...
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.