In Brief: At 7:17 AM on the morning of June 30, 1908, a mysterious explosion occurred in the skies over Siberia. It was caused by the impact and breakup of a large meteorite, at an altitude roughly six kilometers in the atmosphere. Realistic pictures of the even t are unavailable. However, Russian scientists collected eyewitness accounts of the event. I believe that we now know enough about large impacts to "decode" the subjective descriptions of the witnesses and …showed first 75 words of 1959 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1959 total…and more chance to have warn ing about impending impacts. For further information: Chyba, C., P. Thomas, and K. Zahnle 1993. "The 1908 Tunguska Explosion: Atmospheric Disruption of a Stony Asteroid". Nature 361, p. 40-44. (Calculation of size of the bolide.) Gallant, Roy A. 1994 "Journey to Tunguska". Sky and Telescope, June, 38-43. (Description of a modern journey to the site, with photographs.) Krinov, E. L. 1966 Giant Meteorites (London: Pergamon Press). (Description of the site and interviews with witnesses).