An analysis of the physical, chemical, optical, and historical impacts of the 1908 Tunguska meteor fall

Turco, R. P.; Toon, O. B.; Park, C.; Whitten, R. C.; Pollack, James B.; Noerdlinger, Peter D.

doi:10.1016/0019-1035(82)90096-3

Cited by 100 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…After numerous computer simulations, it was found that the overpressure in the gas cap just prior to impact corresponding to MC, -5 x lOI g can best explain the flattened forest associated with this event for the zenith angles considered. This is in good agreement with existing estimates for A&, (Fesenkov, 1966 ; Turco et al, 1982). In solving these equations, it was found that the nuclear energy released during the comet's -3 s passage through the atmosphere was indeed negligible.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

The nuclear and aerial dynamics of the Tunguska Event

D’Alessio

Harms

1989

Planetary and Space Science

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Abstract-A mathematical-physical characterization of an atmospheric "explosive" event-commonly called the Tunguska Event of 1908-has been formulated. Emphasis is placed upon the aerial dynamics and the nuclear energy released in the gas cap of the meteor as it passed through the atmosphere.The results obtained are consistent with the dominant phenomena observed for the Tunguska Event suggesting therefore a plausible reconstruction of the physical processes associated with this unusual event.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

The nuclear and aerial dynamics of the Tunguska Event

D’Alessio

Harms

1989

Planetary and Space Science

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“…This discrepancy is probably because part of the nitrogen may have been injected into the upper atmosphere and distributed over a large area of the Earth. However, the quantity of NO produced during the Tunguska event, estimated by Rasmussen and his colleagues, is a factor of 50 lower than that calculated by Turco et al (1982). Figure 4 shows the results of carbon analyses in the KEM N21 peat column.…”

Section: Nitrogenmentioning

confidence: 83%

Isotopic–geochemical study of nitrogen and carbon in peat from the Tunguska Cosmic Body explosion site

Kolesnikov

Longo

Boettger

et al. 2003

Icarus

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Isotopic-geochemical investigations were carried out on peat samples from the 1908 Tunguska Cosmic Body (TCB) explosion area. We analyzed two peat columns from the Northern peat bog, sampled in 1998, and from the Raketka peat bog, sampled during the 1999 Italian expedition, both located near the epicenter of the TCB explosion area. At the depth of the "catastrophic" layer, formed in 1908, and deeper, one can observe shifts in the isotopic composition of nitrogen (up to ⌬ 15 N ϭ ϩ7.2‰) and carbon (up to ⌬ 13 C ϭ ϩ2‰) and also an increase in the nitrogen concentration compared to those in the normal, upper layers, unaffected by the Tunguska event. One possible explanation for these effects could be the presence of nitrogen and carbon from TCB material and from acid rains, following the TCB explosion, in the "catastrophic" and "precatastrophic" layers of peat. We found that the highest quantity of isotopically heavy nitrogen fell near the explosion epicenter and along the TCB trajectory. It is calculated that 200,000 tons of nitrogen fell over the area of devastated forest, i.e., only about 30% of the value calculated by Rasmussen et al. (1984). This discrepancy is probably caused by part of the nitrogen having dispersed in the Earth's atmosphere. The isotopic effects observed in the peat agree with the results of previous investigations (Kolesnikov et al., 1998a(Kolesnikov et al., , 1998bRasmussen et al., 1999) and also with the increased content of iridium and other platinoids found in the corresponding peat layers of other columns (Hou et al., 1998(Hou et al., , 2000. These data favor the hypothesis of a cosmochemical origin of the isotopic effects.

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“…This event has been the subject of debate regarding several aspects, including the nature of the bolide -a low-density cometary body or stony meteorite. In the first case, accompanying the progressive ablation of the body during its entrance into the atmosphere, thermal decomposition of N 2 and O 2 would have efficiently produced NO through the mesosphere and stratosphere (Turco et al, 1982). Estimation of the production reached 30 Tg of NO and would be detected as enhanced nitrate levels in snow deposited in both Greenland and Antarctica during at least one year.…”

Section: Data Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Boreal fire records in Northern Hemisphere ice cores: a review

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Here, we review different attempts made since the early 1990s to reconstruct past forest fire activity using chemical signals recorded in ice cores extracted from the Greenland ice sheet and a few mid-northern latitude, high-elevation glaciers. We first examined the quality of various inorganic (ammonium, nitrate, potassium) and organic (black carbon, various organic carbon compounds including levoglucosan and numerous carboxylic acids) species proposed as fire proxies in ice, particularly in Greenland. We discuss limitations in their use during recent vs. preindustrial times, atmospheric lifetimes, and the relative importance of other non-biomass-burning sources. Different high-resolution records from several Greenland drill sites and covering various timescales, including the last century and Holocene, are discussed. We explore the extent to which atmospheric transport can modulate the record of boreal fires from Canada as recorded in Greenland ice. Ammonium, organic fractions (black and organic carbon), and specific organic compounds such as formate and vanillic acid are found to be good proxies for tracing past boreal fires in Greenland ice. We show that use of other species -potassium, nitrate, and carboxylates (except formate) -is complicated by either post-depositional effects or existence of large non-biomassburning sources. The quality of levoglucosan with respect to other proxies is not addressed here because of a lack of highresolution profiles for this species, preventing a fair comparison. Several Greenland ice records of ammonium consistently indicate changing fire activity in Canada in response to past climatic conditions that occurred during the last millennium and since the last large climatic transition. Based on this review, we make recommendations for further study to increase reliability of the reconstructed history of forest fires occurring in a given region.

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An analysis of the physical, chemical, optical, and historical impacts of the 1908 Tunguska meteor fall

Cited by 100 publications

References 108 publications

The nuclear and aerial dynamics of the Tunguska Event

The nuclear and aerial dynamics of the Tunguska Event

Isotopic–geochemical study of nitrogen and carbon in peat from the Tunguska Cosmic Body explosion site

Boreal fire records in Northern Hemisphere ice cores: a review

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