Here’s an anniversary this blog really couldn’t ignore – Tunguska, the unexplained event a century ago that caused a massive explosion in Siberia, turned the skies dark and broke windows hundreds of miles away.

It is, of course, also the theme of an X-files episode in which Fox Mulder ends up in a gulag in particularly unhelpful circumastances. And less conventional explanations for Tunguska include the explosion of an alien spaceship in the Earth’s atmosphere, a natural event of nuclear fusion producing the effects of an H-bomb, gas from within the Earth’s crust, antimatter or even a black hole.

However the mineral debris left behind would seem to indicate a straight comet or asteroid strike. More information here.

Scientists haven’t lost their curiosity about the Tunguska Event – and are not always keen to accept a mainstream explanation. Here’s a piece from today’s Telegraph:

Russian scientists in bid to solve Tunguska Event

Most scientists reckon that the Tunguska explosion – 1,000 times more powerful than the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima – was caused by a meteorite or a comet.

But because evidence of a meteorite crater or space debris has yet to be shown, the conspiracy theories continue to multiply.

Even in the mainstream scientific community different explanations have been offered. One theory aired this week suggested that the sudden expulsion of methane from the ground could have been responsible.

In Moscow, however, even that theory is given short shrift. Some attending the conference blamed Nikola Tesla, the eccentric American scientist who said he had developed a death ray – a particle beam weapon capable of moving at the speed of light. They claimed he had been testing it.

Others said that the explosion was the result of interaction between the universe’s Ying and Yang elements or was a curse by the thunder god Ogdy. Read full story here…