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Tunguska 1908: The Explosion That Shook the World · Lost Civilizations: Ancient Aliens & Forgotten History

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  You're listening to Lost Civilizations, Ancient Aliens and
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  Forgotten History, the podcast where we explore the
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  mysteries, the terrories and the events.
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  And that may challenge everything we think we
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  know about our history.
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  I'm your host, René, and today we are
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  going to talk about Tunguska, an explosion so
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  powerful that the people believe that the end
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  of the world has begun, an event that
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  flattered millions of trees, sent shockwaves around the
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  entire planet, and lit up the skies for
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  Europe for days.
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  But when the scientists finally arrived, they did
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  not find any craters, no meteorite, no clear
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  explanation, only a force that looks like the
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  sky itself has detonated above it.
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  And this is the story of Tunguska.
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  June the 13th of 1908, the clock is
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  7.14 in the morning over the Siberian
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  wilderness, something happens in the sky.
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  Witnesses described it as blinding, white-blue, impossible
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  to look at directly.
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  Some say it looked like a cylinder, others
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  described it as a giant fireball.
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  One eyewitness later said the sky split in
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  two, fire covers the forest.
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  Another witness simply described it as a second
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  sun.
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  Imagine for a moment you are standing in
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  the middle of the Siberian taiga, the morning
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  sun has already overhead, and suddenly there is
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  two suns in the sky.
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  Then the explosions came.
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  At 7.14 in the morning, an object
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  exploded above Tunguska, not on the ground, but
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  in the atmosphere, and the force, it's almost
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  impossible to comprehend.
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  Modernists estimate it in a range of 10
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  to 50 megatons of TNT.
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  Even at the low end, that is thousands
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  of times more powerful than Hiroshima.
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  Around 80 million trees were flattered.
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  More than 800 square miles of forest was
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  simply destroyed.
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  Windows scattered hundreds of miles away, people were
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  thrown on the ground, train stops, seismographs around
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  the world registered the shock wave.
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  Twice.
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  But perhaps the most terrifying part is that
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  how close civilization may have come to a
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  disaster.
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  Some researchers later pointed out that if the
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  object has arrived a few hours later, earth
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  rotations would have shifted, so the impact zone
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  will be directly over Europe.
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  Cities like St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, possibly Berlin.
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  The story itself might have changed forever,
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  but Tunguska didn't end in Siberia.
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  In the days after the explosion, strange things
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  happen across Europe.
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  Nights become unusually bright in London, Berlin, Vienna,
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  even in Copenhagen.
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  People reportedly could read newspapers at midnight without
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  any kind of artificial light.
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  Astronomers observed glowing silver clouds, strange atmospheric haze,
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  solar halos, something enormous has been thrown high
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  in the earth's atmosphere, but no one knew
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  what it was.
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  So, why did no one investigate?
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  Yes, that is why the history becomes truly
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  strange.
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  An explosion powerful enough to circle the entire
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  planet with shock waves, and yet almost nobody
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  investigated it.
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  There was no immediate scientific response, no massive
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  international expedition, almost nothing.
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  It would take nearly 20 years before a
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  Russian miniologist called Leonid Kulik finally led a
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  serious expeditions into the region, officially.
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  The explanation was simple.
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  Siberia was remote, Russia was collapsing into a
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  revolution and war, the region was nearly impossible
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  to reach.
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  But some theories suggest something more.
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  Or should I say something else entirely?
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  According to certain accounts, military expeditions may have
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  reached the area long before Kulik.
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  Some claim reports vanished, archives disappeared, that witnesses
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  were silenced.
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  There is no definitive proof for any cover
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  -up, but the idea persists.
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  Because from the very beginning, Tunguska feels like
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  something that refuses to be fully explained.
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  When Kulik finally reached the blast zone in
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  1927, what he sees is almost surreal.
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  Millions of tree lives flattered onward from a
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  central point, like giant matchsticks.
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  But in the center, some trees were still
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  standing.
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  Burnt, stripped of back, dead, but upright.
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  It doesn't look like a normal impact crater,
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  it looks like an explosion in the sky.
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  And that creates a massive problem.
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  Because if there was a meteorite, where is
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  the crater?
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  The local people in Siberia, the Evenki people,
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  their shamans has their own explanation.
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  Some believe that the thunder god Acti has
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  descended from the heavens.
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  Others claim the land itself has become cursed.
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  Animals died, people became ill, entire regions were
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  avoided for years after war.
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  Today it's easy to dismiss these stories as
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  mythology, but what is truly interesting is how
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  humans react when confronted with something they cannot
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  explain.
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  There are some theories.
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  And it is so when answers does not
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  exist, then we have these theories, they appear.
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  And Tunguska has attracted almost every theory you
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  can imagine.
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  Let's start with Nikola Tesla.
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  One of the strangest theories involves Nikola Tesla.
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  At the time, Tesla was experimenting with wireless
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  energy transmission, and some believe Tunguska was the
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  result of a failed energy experiment.
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  There is no serious evidence supporting this theory,
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  but the idea refuses to disappear.
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  Then there is the UFO theory.
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  So some suggest that the object was not
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  natural at all.
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  Maybe it was a spacecraft, maybe alien technology,
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  maybe something intelligent.
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  But some reports describe the object as cylindrical.
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  Other claims the explosion pattern didn't match a
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  normal impact event.
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  But once again, no alien technology has ever
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  been recovered, no machine parts, no undeniable evidence.
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  And maybe that is exactly why the mystery
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  survives.
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  And then there's the real terror.
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  And that is perhaps the most frightening explanation,
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  because it's also the simplest.
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  What if Tunguska really is a random cosmic
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  object, a comet, an asteroid?
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  A fragment of space debris arriving at exactly
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  the wrong place at exactly the wrong time?
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  Because if that is true, it can happen
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  again.
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  In 19...
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  I say again, sorry, at 2013, there was
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  another object that exploded over Russia.
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  This time it was over Chelyabinsk.
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  Millions watched it on video.
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  A bright flash, a delay, then a shockwave.
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  Look it up on the YouTube or internet
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  and look in the transcription for the correct
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  pronunciation of the name.
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  More than 1,000 people were injured, almost
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  all by shattered glass.
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  And suddenly Tunguska no longer feels like science
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  fiction, because now we have modern footage of
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  exactly the kind of atmospheric explosion scientists has
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  been describing for decades, an air burst, a
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  cosmic detonation in the atmosphere.
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  The warning is that one researcher described Tunguska
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  as a wake-up call from the cosmos.
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  And maybe that is exactly what it is.
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  Maybe Tunguska matters, not because it remains completely
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  unresolved, but because it reminds us of something
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  we desperately want to forget.
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  Civilization is not permanent.
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  Earth is not protected.
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  Humanity still lives beneath the skies.
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  We do not control this environment.
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  Today the forest of Tunguska has grown back,
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  but the scars remain, a mark in the
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  landscape left behind by something that came from
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  the sky.
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  Maybe it was a meteorite, maybe a comet,
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  maybe something stranger.
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  But one thing seems certain.
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  On the morning in 1908, humanity learned that
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  the universe can still surprise us.
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  Violently.
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  You have been listening to Lost Civilization, Ancient
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  Aliens and Forgotten History.
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  I'm Ernie.
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  Thank you for listening.