New Research May Explain Mystery Explosion

via Space.com

New research may have discovered an impact crater, now a lake, that could explain the mysterious 1908 Tunguska explosion in Siberia. More than 800 sq miles of forest was devastated by the event, unexplained up to this point. No prior evidence of an impact event has been discovered, but a new team studying the area appears to have stumbles onto evidnece in sediment cores from nearby Lake Cheko, 5 miles from the epicenter of the event.

""When we looked at the bottom of the lake, we measured seismic waves reflecting off of something," said Giuseppe Longo, a physicist at the University of Bologna in Italy and co-author of the study. "Nobody has found this before. We can only explain that and the shape of the lake as a low-velocity impact crater." Should the team turn up conclusive evidence of an asteroid or comet on a later expedition, when they obtain a deeper core sample beneath the lake, remaining mysteries surrounding the Tunguska event may be solved."

The team intends to get a more substantial core (10 m deep rather than the previous 6 m sample) sample this summer to determine if an impact event occurred at the location, and what it was if such is proven to be true.