Smile of the Day Thursday June 30, 2022: The Tunguska Event
On June 30, 1908 A giant fireball, most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet, flattens 80 million trees near the Stony Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia, in the largest impact event in recorded history. The Tunguska event (occasionally also called the Tunguska incident) was a ~12 megaton explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia, on the morning of June 30, 1908. The explosion over the sparsely populated Eastern Siberian Taiga flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 km2 (830 sq mi) of forest, and eyewitness reports suggest that at least three people may have died in the event.