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What happened during the Tunguska event in 1908?

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Illustration showing a massive asteroid above a city map with a dinosaur silhouette for scale, highlighting the asteroid's size compared to major urban areas. — Asteroid This rock would take out more than just a *T. rex*.

On June 30, 1908, a massive explosion occurred over the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia, Russia. While some theories suggest a comet caused the blast, many scientists believe it was an asteroid that disintegrated in the atmosphere at an altitude of 5–10 km.12

The event released energy equivalent to approximately 15 megatons of TNT, flattening roughly 2,000 square km of forest. Because the object vaporized high above the surface, it created a powerful blast wave and fireball but left no impact crater. Eyewitnesses reported intense heat and ground tremors, and seismic waves were recorded as far away as western Europe. The dispersal of gases into the atmosphere resulted in abnormally bright nighttime skies across the region for some time afterward. Investigations, beginning with expeditions led by Leonid Kulik in the 1920s, confirmed the radial pattern of the felled trees, which pointed directly away from the epicenter.12