Scientists Uncover Evidence in Siberia's Century-Old Meteorite Mystery [Tunguska Event]

Friday, June 29, 2012

Scientists Uncover Evidence in Siberia's Century-Old Meteorite Mystery [Tunguska Event]

By Natalia Ettore, Vladimir Tikhomirov
Ogoniok magazine
6-28-12

Italian scientists claim they have found the remnants of a meteorite that they say created a Siberian lake more than 100 years ago and Russian scientists want them to prove it.

. . . Since 1991, a team of scientists from the ISAR Institute for Marine Geology in Bologna have been coming to the Podkamennaya Tunguska River basin, where the blast shook the Earth. Some of the researchers, especially Luca Gasperini, the leader of the expedition, know the local taiga better than many of the locals.

“I have been fascinated by the Tunguska mystery since childhood and I have dreamed of discovering the meteorite all my life,” the Italian professor said. “So, as soon as I had a chance, I put together a team of specialists and we went to Russia.”

Soviet scientists Vladimir Koshelev and Kirill Florensky were the first to hypothesize about the location of the crater; the two pinpointed Lake Cheko as the possible impact crater back in 1960. Yet there was no technical means to verify their hypothesis at the time. And with the possible crater full of water, scientists were not able to ascertain whether it had the telling bowl-shape made by the impact of an object hurtling through space. . . .

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