Tunguska eye witnesses

Whatever shattered the Siberian day 111 years ago, it was not pieces of a meteorite, Russian researchers say.

"The witnesses’ testimonies were collected in three stages: first in 1908 immediately after the impact, in 1920-1930, and then in the 1960s, when the old-timers were questioned. Some of the recollections were used in calculating the bolide’s likely trajectories."

"At about 8 a.m. the day was remarkably bright and clear. ... suddenly a remote, barely audible sound of thunder was heard. I quickly turned to where the blast wave came from to see a wide, fiery white stripe cross the sun’s rays. ... An oblong object of an irregular shape was flying into the taiga. ... It was like a cloud far larger than the Moon in diameter, with blurry edges."

T.N. Naumenko, the Kezhemskoye village

  

"Smoke billowed to an altitude five times the size of towering trees. The earth began to tremble followed by a terrible thunder shortly thereafter. I felt scared and became ill for a long time as a result. At that time, political exiles living in Preobrazhenka claimed that a planet had fallen."

N.A. Konenkina, the Preobrazhenka village

"…It was the season for plowing fallow fields. At breakfast time, I was sitting on the porch of my house at the Vanavara trading post. … I’d just picked an axe to hammer a hoop on a barrel when in the north, along the Vasily Ilyich Onkoul Tunguska Road, the sky split and lit up in fire above the forest. The rift in the sky grew wider, and soon the entire northern side of it was ablaze. At that moment, it was so hot it felt as if my shirt was burning up…"

S.B. Semenov, the Vanavara trading post

  

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