Britannica
Sources used in this answer
How much forest was flattened by the Tunguska event?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Earth impact hazard
An artist's rendering of the impact of a near-Earth object 66 million years ago in what is today the Caribbean region. Many scientists think that the collision of a large asteroid or comet nucleus with Earth triggered the mass extinction of dinosaurs and many other species near the end of the Cretaceous Period.
The Tunguska event, which occurred in 1908 over central Siberia, flattened approximately 2,000 square kilometers (500,000 acres) of pine forest.12
In addition to the flattened trees, the blast charred more than 100 square kilometers of forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Investigations of the site revealed that the trees were felled in a radial pattern, pointing away from the epicenter of the explosion, where no impact crater was found.1