Human consequences
Witnesses more than 60 km away are knocked to the ground by the blast and feel intense heat.
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From spaceTunguska event
0Deaths
Not quantifiedDisplaced / homeless
Not quantifiedEstimated cost
- No confirmed deaths in this almost uninhabited area; a few accounts mention one to three reindeer herders killed.
An object from space, probably an asteroid or a comet fragment a few tens of metres across, explodes several kilometres above the taiga. The blast flattens some 80 million trees over more than 2,000 km².
Consequences
Environmental consequences
No crater: the forest is flattened in a radial pattern around the epicentre, where trees stay standing but scorched and stripped of branches. Unusually bright nights are seen across Europe.
Economic consequences
Almost no losses in this empty area. The first scientific expedition, led by Leonid Kulik, only reaches the site in 1927.
Political consequences
The event has become the benchmark for impact risk: 30 June is now International Asteroid Day, proclaimed by the UN.
Further reading
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