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April 15, 2008 - The Tunguska Riddle: How Powerful was the Greatest Asteroid Impact in Recorded History?

A column of bluish light as bright as the Sun streaked through cloudless skies above the Taiga forest.  Minutes later, local herdsmen and recent settlers saw a brilliant flash followed by the sound of explosions, like an artillery barrage from a great battle raging over the horizon. An ashen cloud rose in the distance, and could be seen from hundreds of miles away. And then – silence.

The place: the Podkamennaya (Lower Stony) Tunguska River in central Siberia, northeast of Lake Baikal; the time: 7:14 a.m. on the morning of June 30, 1908. Within minutes the "Tunguska Event," the largest asteroid impact in modern recorded history, was over.