MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS Correspondent Viktoria Melnikova/. On October 9th, one of the most unusual nature reserves in the world celebrated another anniversary. The Tunguska Nature Reserve in the Krasnoyarsk Region's north has turned 30 years, and a biggest mystery of the past and current century turned 117 years in the summer. The reserve is located on the site where a powerful explosion occurred one day. People are still wondering what happened back then and whether there was a meteorite at all. TASS has collected most weird versions - the wrath of shamans, an alien ship, and even an invasion of mosquitoes.
To preserve the location
The Tunguska Nature Reserve, some 80 km from the village of Vanavara, was established around the famous meteorite fall site only in 1995, when the phenomenon turned almost 90 years. The procedure of gaining the official status of a special protected area was not easy, the nature reserve's first director, Valery Yolkin, said. "My family comes from here, and we all realized this place is unique and unusual. Our territory is different from the world's other nature reserves and sanctuaries because in 1908, a space object - the Tunguska meteorite - collapsed between the Khushma and the Kimchu Rivers.
The Tunguska phenomenon's nature remains unclear. This territory is of exceptional interest for being the only area on Earth that provides an opportunity to study environmental consequences of space disasters. Therefore, we realized it was necessary to preserve this place," he said.Back in 1995, organizing a reserve became urgent, the reserve's current director, Lyudmila Logunova, said. "At the time when the reserve was being created, two deep wells were to be drilled in the epicenter of the fall, and intensive exploration for oil and gas continued there. That was out of question, of course. To a big extent, the reserve was organized thanks to Academician Nikolay Vasiliev. He was truly ascetic, and his main goal was to preserve the Tunguska meteorite site," she said.
Nikolay Vasiliev was a well-known Soviet scientist in medicine, but the Tunguska disaster was one of his favorite topics. "It was he who was an organizer of the Comprehensive Amateur Expedition (CAE) to the meteorite site. I must say, Nikolay Vasiliev had great respect for the locals - the Evenks, the Ketu. He, a scientist, was always happy to hear from people most incredible versions of the Tunguska disaster," Yolkin added.
'... burning the taiga, felling trees, and killing deer '
The most incredible version, which the Evenks, however, consider the most reliable, emerged immediately after the disaster - in June, 1908. The local shamanic population believes the Tunguska meteorite is the wrath of God Agdy, said First Vice-President of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East Artur Gayulsky. Russia's Supreme Shaman Kara-ool Dopchun-ool added that perhaps the God of Lightning and Thunder had descended in smoke and flame, and fire tornadoes had flown with him.
"Those were they who were burning the taiga, felling trees, and killing deer. You are asking me why it happened then? This is the wrath of the gods. Look what happened to the country after 1908 - wars, revolutions. It was a sign that bad things were coming. That anger is a warning to people," Dopchun-ool said. Witnesses of the events of 1908, indeed, said the fall was like the apocalypse. Grandfather of the leader of the Tunguska-Chun group of indigenous low-numbered peoples' branch at the settlement Arun (meaning "Rebirth") Nelya Yolkina witnessed those events."My grandfather, Ivan Dzhenkoul, witnessed the fall and later, in the 1920s, he led the first expedition of scientists to the site. He and his family shared impressions. Everyone said it was very warm and clear that day. In an instant, the sky split into two parts and flashed red. That day, my grandfather's dad went to the river to meet the deer. There, they had two warehouses. So, only ashes remained from the one that was closer to the fall epicenter. A whirlwind blew away the second one and scattered it around," said Nelya.
"Near Lake Checo, the deer were lying in piles," she quoted grandfather's memoirs, "that is, the explosion blew them apart. People nearby were not injured. They said they fainted, but then woke up. Right, many Evenks back then remembered God Agdy. My grandfather and his uncle said about him. They all believed that the thunder went to earth. It was Agdy's wrath."
Witnesses of those events said reindeer herders' chums were flying up, barn locks were melting, and trees in the forest as if "got out of the ground." Many years later, scientists registered the forest's getting out, and now the phenomenon has become the Tunguska Nature Reserve's attraction.
Hello from the aliens
Another devotee of the Tunguska phenomenon, a man who did a lot to study the 1908 disaster, mineralogist Leonid Kulik, preserved memories of eyewitnesses. He managed to visit the crash site in 1927, and before that, he came to the Krasnoyarsk Region to study scrupulously memories of eyewitnesses. In those years, Kulik noticed and took my grandfather Pavel Rozhkov as his assistant.
At the crash time, he was just a boy. My grandfather had a long life, he fought at the war, and had met many interesting people, but Leonid Kulik took a special place in his memory. The scientist sent out more than 2,000 questionnaires across the Krasnoyarsk Region searching for eyewitnesses, and many responded, the grandfather said. The world-renowned scientist always respected versions the eyewitnesses had put forward. He listened to everyone and could not rule out the disaster's cosmic nature would remain unstudied for a long time.
Much later, in the 1950s, science fiction writers interpreted the cosmic event, and that version still remains most realistic in the public. Marina Nubayeva, head of the Vanavara branch of the Evenki Museum of Local History, said many visitors still asked about aliens. "The alien version has been initiated by writer Alexander Kazantsev. His book - Explosion - was published in the Znanie magazine.
One character, a theory physicist, claimed the explosion had occurred in a nuclear-powered interplanetary ship. Interestingly, a real local female shaman was the prototype of an alien character. Perhaps that's why many still believe in this version," Marina Nubayeva said. As time went by, the "alien" version was gaining new details. In the early 1980s, the famous Soviet popular science program The Obvious - The Incredible voiced the theory that back in 1908, aliens managed to land in the Evenki taiga. When leaving, they took with them everything that could indicate their presence, so, later on, neither Kulik, nor Vasiliev, nor dozens of other scientists who visited the site, found any traces of the meteorite.
Mosquitoes and ball lightning
The locals stick to another weird version, Marina Nubaeva said. "We have a funny popular version here. It says the explosion was caused not by a celestial body, but by mosquitoes. The insects have got accumulated in the swamp. A ball lightning hit the insects giving such an effect," she added. Scientists are responsible for the "mosquito theory," said Lyudmila Logunova.
"The Comprehensive Amateur Expedition that studied the disaster featured various scientists - chemists, physicists, biologists, and botanists. In Soviet times, journalists also used to come here. I know a story, saying that once scientists shared a tent with a Moscow journalist. In the evening, when everyone was resting, the scientists decided to make fun. In scientific language, they were claiming the origin was in mosquitoes. They gave calculations, poured out terminology. Absolutely 'based on proven facts.' The journalist took it seriously, and on returning to Moscow, he published this version in the newspaper," Lyudmila laughed.
Tunguska meteorite never happened
What really happened in the summer of 1908 in the Evenki taiga? This question still does not have a clear answer. Only a few facts are known: the explosion occurred at an altitude of about 5 km. It lasted for two-tenths of a second. No traces of a meteorite or any other object have been found.
However, in 2020, the solution seemed to become closer. That year, scientists published a paper with a new explanation for the Tunguska phenomenon, a researcher at the Krasnoyarsk Kirensky Institute of Physics, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Sergey Karpov said.
According to the scientist, the meteorite has not fallen on the surface of the earth. "The significant damage in the Podkamennaya Tunguska area is not due to the fall of a space object to Earth, but due to shock waves from an iron asteroid passing through the Earth's atmosphere. This explains why there are no big meteorite fragments on the Earth's surface. <...> This is the most realistic version," the expert said.
Having made calculations, scientists said that the size of that asteroid body of iron was between 100 and 200 meters. The asteroid passed through the Earth's atmosphere at a minimum altitude of 10-15 km and entered outer space into a circumsolar orbit. "This theory is supported by the fact that there are no fragments of this body or impact craters on the Earth's surface," Sergey Karpov added.
The current task scientists are facing is to study most carefully how nature at the site has been recovering. This is exactly what the Tunguska Nature Reserve is doing.
"Scientists presently have the opportunity to see how natural ecosystems are recovering at a space disaster site. We are able to analyze what kind of nature there used to be, the conditions that have remained in the unaffected territory," the nature reserve's Deputy Director for Scientific Work, Candidate of Biological Sciences Arthur Meydus said.
Now that more than 100 years have passed, we can see clearly how the forest tiers, grassy and shrubby communities have recovered, and how the fauna is developing, the scientist added.
"Obtained results enable us to consider global ecosystem issues: mechanisms of climate change, recovery of forest communities after fires, carbon transpiration in communities, and cycles of substances in nature. We welcome scientists from different fields - geo-botanists, botanists, zoologists, entomologists, climatologists," the deputy director said.
Will the Tunguska phenomenon mystery be ever solved? All the surveyed gave clear responses. "I don't think we'll ever learn the answer," Artur Gayulsky said. "You know, maybe it's for the best that we won't find out the truth. This mystery will remain, attracting tourists and scientists. If it's solved, life will get boring," the eyewitness's granddaughter, Nelya Yolkina, said in conclusion.