Dave,
I hate to quibble... Oh, who am
I kidding? I love to quibble!
The Earth rotates counter-clockwise
when viewed from above its north pole,
so next in line for being whacked by
Tunguska is the rest of Russia, eastern
Europe, western Europe, England...
A later impact would appear very
nicely aligned with Begium, a nation
that is just about the size of the zone
of complete blast devastation of
Tunguska.
The interpretation of the barometric
record varies of course. I make it about
32 megatons +/- 20% by calibrating
the witness reports to the infrared flux,
deriving a black body temp, etc., etc.,
or 26 to 39 megatons. Other estimates
go as low as 15-18 megatons; most
are 20-25 mTons; one other says 40.
How about 30?
If that was its magnitude, you could
reasonably expect a daytime T-Event
centered over Belgium to kill 90% of
the human population; or if it was "only"
15 mTons, 60% of the population of
Belgium.
It lines up a little off-center for the
next densely populated target: London,
but I think you could have counted on
4-5 million deaths there, well exceeding
the nastier imaginings of Mr. Wells and
his Martians...
Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "metlist" <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 3:02 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Tunguska wood
So... I got my Tunguska wood yesterday
I am very pleased with the sample I must say - and when I counted the
rings
- it was correct!
This is something I remember being told about since I was a little 'un.
As
it happened in 1908 - they couldn't blame nukes - but just imagine the
consequences of it happening 4 hours later over the eastern seaboard of
the
USA....
Fantastic - a piece of "Ripley's Believe it or not" coming true!
And Matteo,
Yep, I guess one has to ask the Uni of Bologna very nicely!
Thanks for your indulgence in letting me boast about my new acquisition!
Dave
IMCA #0092
Sec. BIMS
www.bimsociety.org
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