What theories abound to explain the cataclysmic Tunguska Explosion?

jaknginger

Although debated it is thought to have been from air bursts of a comet or meteor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event Jul 13 08, 6:26 AM

author

In scientific circles, the leading explanation for the explosion is the airburst of a meteoroid 6–10 kilometres (4–6 miles) above Earth's surface. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event#Meteoroid_airburst Jul 13 08, 8:41 AM

zbeckabee

A few of the GAZILLION theories out there: End of the World? -- Perhaps the earliest widely-held theory for the Tunguska explosion was that the world was about to end. Natural H-bomb -- In 1989, D'Alessio and Harms suggested that some of the deuterium in a comet entering the Earth's atmosphere may have undergone a nuclear fusion reaction, leaving a distinctive signature in the form of carbon-14. Independently, in 1990, César Sirvent proposed that a deuterium comet, i.e., a comet with an anomalous high concentration of deuterium in its composition, could have exploded as a natural hydrogen bomb, generating most of the energy released. Black hole -- In 1973, Albert A. Jackson and Michael P. Ryan, physicists at the University of Texas, proposed that the Tunguska event was caused by a "small" (around 1020 g to 1022 g) black hole passing through the Earth Antimatter -- In 1965, Cowan, Atluri, and Libby suggested that the Tunguska event was caused by the annihilation of a chunk of antimatter falling from space. UFO crash -- Various UFO aficionados have claimed that the Tunguska event was the result of an exploding alien spaceship or even an alien weapon going off to "save the Earth from an imminent threat." Tectonic and meteorological activity -- For Ol`khovatov, the Tunguska event has all the hallmarks of an extreme terrestrial geophysical event. Natural gas explosion -- Wolfgang Kundt of the Institute for Astrophysics at the University of Bonn argues that the event was the result of the tectonic expulsion of some 10 megatons of natural gas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event#Speculative_hypotheses http://www.everything-science.com/sci/Forum/Itemid,82/topic,5135.0/prev_next,next/lang,es/ Jul 13 08, 11:03 AM