NUCLEAR EXPLOSION OVER THE TAIGA

• Main Author: Zigel',F. Yu.
• Other Authors: FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY DIV WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB OHIO
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1964
• Subjects: *METEORITES; SIBERIA; COMETS; EXPLOSION EFFECTS; DAMAGE ASSESSMENT; NUCLEAR ENERGY; GEOMAGNETISM; USSR; SHOCK WAVES; Sila; Tunguska; taiga; Siberia
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0607498; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0607498

Data are reviewed suggesting that the mysterious body which exploded on 30 June 1908 in the Siberian taiga near the Tunguska River released nuclear energy and that the explosion was actually some sort of nuclear blast. An examination of previously established information shows that the body could not have been a meteorite nor a comet. Data obtained by a 1958-1961 expedition led by the Ural geophysicist A. V. Zolotov and sponsored by the USSR Academy of Sciences indicates that the body was travelling at a velocity of about 3 kilometers a second and that the source of the explosion could not have been the kinetic energy of the body, but was its internal energy. Other evidence obtained by the Zolotov expedition shows that the radiant energy of the explosion was about 10 to the 23 power ergs. The body was apparently flying from the SW towards the NE. Furthermore, the explosion was directive. The directivity of the explosion leads Zolotov to conclude that the explosive nuclear substance was contained in a non-explosive shell. Unedited rough draft trans. of Znanie-Sila (USSR) 1961, v. 36, no. 12, p. 24-27.