The Tunguska Event

Date: June 30, 1908 • Location: Vanavara, Russian Federation

The Tunguska Event, the largest impact event on Earth in human recorded history, resulting in a massive explosion over Eastern Siberia. The Tunguska event was a large explosion that occurred on the morning of 30 June [O.S. 17 June] 1908, at around 7:14 KRAT in Central Siberia, then part of the Russian Empire. This cataclysm occurred in a remote and sparsely populated region of the taiga, near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River after which it is named. The shock wave knocked several witnesses to the ground, killed at least three people as well as numerous animals, and shattered windows within a 200 km (120 mi) radius. The blast was recorded by various Russian and German seismological stations with a magnitude close to 5 on the Richter scale, while atmospheric waves generated by the shock wave were detected worldwide. From 30 June to 3 July, intense bright nights were observed across western Eurasia over an area of more than 10,000,000 km2 (3,900,000 sq mi).