Customer Reviews

The Tunguska Mystery (Astronomers' Universe)

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On June 30, 1908, on a sunny Siberian morning at 00 H 14 M GMT (7:14 am local time) something exploded in the skies over the Podkamennaya (Lower Stony) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia. The blast blew out windows 200 km away and was heard more than 800 km from the site. The seismic wave was recorded as far away as Germany and the atmospheric pressure wave was measured on barographs in London. The nearest eyewitnesses (30 km to the south-southeast) had their shelter blown away, their local area set afire, and reported a second sun in the sky. Approximately 2100 sq km of forest was radially flattened and then burned. At the epicentre, trees remained standing but were stripped of branches - burnt telegraph poles. The blast occurred at some 6 to 8 km altitude. There is no impact crater.

I became fascinated by the Tunguska Event nearly half a century ago, reading about it in 'Boy's Life' or some such and I am not alone, as it has become an enduring Global mystery, familiar to hundreds of millions, and a staple of popular western culture seeking the undefinable. A true X-File. This morning, (26 October 2009) a Google search on 'Tunguska event' turned up over 59,000 hits. Not surprising for an occurrence that has been the focus of intense curiosity, speculation and (as Dr. Rubtsov has detailed) an extraordinary investigative effort by Soviet and Russian scientists over the last hundred years.

Dr. Rubtsov's book is an encyclopedic compilation and a well written precis of the scientific records of that marvellous research. From the 1921 Kulik expedition searching for evidence of a meteorite impact (which was not found) to the Centenary conferences held in 2008 to discuss the event (there were more than half a dozen of them), Dr. Rubtsov has catalogued the incredible effort put into the problem over the last century, both by independent researchers and also by the official Soviet (later Russian) Scientific Academies. Much of the content and references have not been widely documented in the West prior to this publication and that is not surprising, since most of the citations refer to previous documentation only available in Russian. It is an excellent reference book and a worthy addition to the libraries of all anomalists.

More than that, it is clear from Dr. Rubtsov's writing that he holds a huge 'affection' (for lack of a better word), not only for the still unsolved mystery of the Tunguska Event (which he has been personally involved in for nearly four decades), but also for the vast army of scientific researchers (it was a revelation to me just how vast this army was) who have spent large proportions of their professional lives in trying to make sense of this extraordinary happening. He writes with humour and a subtle wit. The subtlety is not misplaced, since during the Soviet era, subtlety was necessary in addressing the problem. The wrong inference published by an open-minded scientist could have earned him a one way ticket to Siberia and a lifetime spent contemplating the mystery from some nearby Gulag. In this respect, Dr. Rubtsov's book should be of interest not only to anomalists, but also to historians and others interested in the evolution of the Soviet scientific effort under the paradigm of an (arguably) paranoid totalitarian government.

Dr. Rubtsov is meticulous in detailing the evidence that has emerged of the mystery. Unusual celestial phenomena recorded as remotely as Western Europe beginning three days or earlier before the event. Many hundreds of eyewitness reports from up to 1000 km away of a flying object (or objects) as it (or they) approached Tunguska, records of the hemispheric magnetic storm associated with the explosion, analysis of the felled trees, including blast patterns and 'flash burns', remnant traces of 'hard' or ionizing radiation in the area, the presence of rare earth elements (and other interesting elements) in the zone affected by the explosion, biological mutations and last but not least, barographic records of the explosion that indicate the possibility that it may have had a nuclear origin. The calculated magnitude of the blast itself was 50 megatons, approximately equivalent to the largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated (the so-called Tsar Bomb fired in 1961 in Novaya Zemlya). This was not your garden variety meteorite!

The book is extremely well referenced and I suspect that Dr. Rubtsov's editor, Edward Ashpole, has had a large influence in setting it in it's final form for English publication. I would have liked a more comprehensive index dealing more specifically with subjects as well as with people - perhaps that will come in later printings?

It is apparent that in addition to being a good writer and scientist, above all Dr. Rubtsov is an empiricist. He repeatedly makes the point that there is no use in proposing explanations that do not fit all of the empirical data. From Kulik's 1921 meteorite, through comet cores, cosmic snowflakes, mini-black holes, an antimatter asteroid and even the 'fanciful' explanation proposed by the Russian Science Fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev in 1945 (a distressed alien starship), Dr. Rubtsov has looked at them all. None of them totally fit the data, although some of them have definitely provided insight and guidance for future research.

Does Dr. Rubtsov have his own theory? Indeed he does, but I will not reveal it in this review, partly because I am still trying to get my head around it. Does it fit the data? Well, yes. That should be enough although it probably won't be. There is clearly more work to be done.

Heartily recommended for all of us who do not totally trust or accept the current world view promulgated in the popular media. Heartily recommended for all those who like to look at the evidence (the two - ie the current world view and the evidence - are not, in my opinion, necessarily contiguous). I think that Dr. Rubtsov would probably agree.

Even though I just recently received this book, after going through all the pages briefly, I find it to be very well written which shows the author's true dedication for detailed information, research and inquiries with colleagues. Along with the various hypothesis for this true life mystery, the illustrations and photographs help the reader to understand the great importance of this study. I found this book to be a fine addition to anyone's library. Who does not enjoy a good mystery...a true scientific mystery which may help us someday to protect our Earth from future Tunguska events?!

I wish to add, after reading this book, that it was very enjoyable from beginning to end. Within each chapter, the data and research was most detailed and understandable, along with a touch of humor and many interesting scientific facts!

This book is truly a one of a kind. Nowhere has such an in depth review and analysis been published under one cover prior to this. What makes this book unique is the plethora of publications that were unavailable to the west and written in Russian.

In reading this book, one relizes the complexity of this event. It was not just a extraterrestrial object that "exploded" over Siberia. There were a chain of events leading up to and including the final above ground explosion. The author goes thru great lengths to give a play by play account of what transpired in the minds of various researchers in analyzing the evidence and eliminating various causes.

The authors writting style draws you into the story to such a degree that one is compelled to keep reading, never thinking to put the book down until one is finished.

This is a tour de force of investigative reporting and scientific insite. Anyone even remotely aware or interested in cosmic impacts, meteoritics or just a great scientific mystery will definetly not be dissappointed. Cited are numerous field reports and scientific studies for those interested and able to read them in their original Russian.

I greatly enjoyed this book. Although I have read several accounts of the Tunguska event, this book brought to light important facts of which I was not aware. Like the careful scientist that he is, Dr. Rubtsov summarizes all of the known facts and gives details of important facets, then shows why all of the current theories of what happened do not adequately explain the facts. He shows that from a scientific standpoint the problem is not solved, but he points the way toward a solution, and believes it is not so far away. The solution toward which the facts point will be startling to many scientists, but as Sherlock Holmes said, when you have eliminated the impossible, the possible, however improbable, must be the solution!

This is the ONE book that addresses the "event" thoroughly and scientifically. Rubtsov goes to the primary (as in Russian) source materials and describes in no small detail what each expedition was looking for, what they found, and what it meant. As you might expect, there were political forces acting, and some scientists were shuffled off to the gulag or died in WWII. But the expeditions, and analyses, continue to this day. I was fascinated at the way Rubtsov states the hypotheses, lays out the physical evidence, reviews connections to previous results, and how that affected future observations and data gathering. It might be too much for some people, but I didn't want to be entertained; I was looking for some hard science facts, and this is the first time I've seen just how much has actually been done. If you're a total newcomer to the subject, or have your mind absolutely made up, this isn't the book for you. But if you're tired of the third and fourth-hand stories, many of them distortions or fiction, and are looking for a comprehensive and "no agenda" approach, FINALLY, here it is. Rubtsov rightfully brushes off armchair theorists - his goal is to lay out the physical evidence, and then describe what that evidence means to each hypothesis: stony meteor, iron meteor, ballistic blast, explosive blast, dirty-snowball comet, icy-rock comet, "cosmic snowflake", abnormal earthquake, antimatter, black hole, you name it and it gets its day in court. Just the facts, too. THIS is the way science texts should be written. Highly recommended.

What a revelation this book has been! Having gained piecemeal information over the years about the extraordinary, unexplained explosion over Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908, I was keen to make a 'speculative purchase' of an authoritative text on the subject. The result has been an enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable journey through a century's scholarship, presented in a detailed but highly readable fashion. Author Vladimir Rubtsov outlines the history of the scientific community's fascination with the 'Tunguska mystery' in self-contained chapters, always relying on the logic of historical inquiry to frame the arguments for and against different explanations for the event - from meteorite to comet to nuclear blast and even exploding spaceship. Imagine a highly scientific Simon Winchester and you have a good sense of the enthusiasm and attention to detail underlying this book. Highly recommended!
JP
Australia, 2011

This is, simply put, a great book. It delves into one of the great mysteries of the 20th century.

There are those of us who, for decades, have been heard or read about the strange explosion in Siberia in 1908 and what might have caused it. Theories abound. Those of us living in the west might have formed the notion that the mystery is solved. Well it's not. If you never read another book about the Tunguska event, you MUST read this one.

In my opinion this is, far and away, the best book I've encountered that explains how science actually operates. The author has taken considerable effort to explain the information gleaned from 80 years of research on the event at Tunguska and he carefully and with considerable skill lays out the information in a way that any lay person will understand. By the time you finish this book you will have been exposed to the "hard data" that has been acquired by numerous scientific expeditions to the site, you will understand the various theories that have been proposed and the strengths and weaknesses of those theories. Most importantly this is NOT a book about the authors pet theory; enough of those have been written. He deals with the data honestly and allows the reader to make up his own mind about any possible "final answers".

This book puts real science in the hands of lay people. Once the reader has both a good understanding of the scale of this event (for example, the explosion was the equivalent to 3000 of the Hiroshima fission devices) and some appreciation for the scientific evidence discovered at the site, he will likely come away with an understanding of what makes this event puzzling and awe inspiring.

this is probably the best written and researched book on the tunguska mystery. mr. rubtsov painstaking goes through all the years of research, the hundreds of scientists, thousands of samples taken over the decades to bring everyone up to date on the research that went into this program, still without no conclusive results as to what caused the explosions. mr. rubtsov has been very open-minded at looking at all the theories and hypothesis that has been brought forth. his writing is very clear and easy to read. not a comet, not a meteor, but something of a nuclear explosion over siberia. this book is an amazing journey through time with many interesting photos to look at. this is a highly recommended book on a fascinating subject.

I had heard of the "Tunguska Meteorite" numerous times via magazines, books, and TV documentaries. It turns out much of that information lies somewhere between unintentionally misleading and flat out wrong. In reality the Tunguska event, which has been researched by top Russian scientists for decades, is still unexplained. Much of this research has been presented in scientific journals, and largely in Russian, leaving many of us in the English speaking west to what we are told by occasional media headlines and poorly researched documentaries. The truth is in fact much stranger and more difficult to resolve than a simple meteorite landing.

The author does a fantastic job of walking us through decades of discovery and research. It's fascinating to watch, almost independently of Tunguska itself, how the scientific world changed around the unyielding enigma of the incident. From the early days of horseback travel and world wars, right up to the present day of computer technology and theoretical physics, researchers have been studying the Taiga looking for answers. It went from the personal quest of one or two scientists to a major multidisciplinary effort of volunteer specialists.

The author does not force any one "correct" solution or approach to the problem so much as he documents the approaches and attitudes of others, along with their results. He clearly has a higher understanding of much of the science involved (he has worked on the problem himself), but at no point does he lose the layman reader in complexities. He is a champion of good, honest, procedural science throughout. It's almost maddening how inconclusive the data turns out to be, but in truth, there is no other way to present it. I fully understand how so many great minds can become obsessed with finding the solution.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone of scientific curiosity. It's an absolutely fascinating natural mystery in and of itself, which may just leave you wanting to book a flight to Siberia to continue the investigation. Beyond that, it's a wonderful study of a major scientific community evolving and working together (and occasionally, in opposition).

Thank you to the author for opening up and documenting this great mystery for major new populations of the world.

On 30 June 2008 something happened in Siberia near the Tunguska river. An enormous explosion levelled 2000 square km of wood and a fire erupted. People saw a fireball much brighter than the sun. Only after 20 years investigations on the spot took place. Nowadays a large group continues to investigate the area thoroughly. This remains an enigma: when a meteorite exploded it must have been 50-100 meter large. No trace, not even molecules, have been ever found of this supposed meteorite.

This book summarizes all observations obtained sofar in a very good way. No farfetched conclusions are drawn.