WEBVTT - What was the Tunguska event? 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.840 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.680 and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there, 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:22.120 the trio known as Stuff you Should Know the trio. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.360 Mm hmm, Jerry came to our live show. I know, 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:33.320 I'm still a little giddy and um in amazement. It's 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:38.360 been a while, Jaars. I mean, I know it's not personal, 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.800 but I just remember she used to actually go on 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:46.280 tour with us where she got a family before she 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:51.680 checked out. Yeah, other people more than nuts. I'd also 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.440 like to point out the um fact that Jerry is 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.760 writhing and discomfort right now, Chuck. Yeah, you're really sticking 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:04.000 a tour. No, she's fine. Um, well, it was a 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:08.400 great show, probably because Jerry was there and everybody, well, 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:09.920 I guess you would have heard it by now because 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.679 these are coming out after Christmas. Time Warp. Let's do 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:18.160 the time warp dance, Chuck, and everybody's like, gee, she 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:19.840 would be nice to see some of the things you're 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:25.720 talking about. What you can do maybe next year you 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.520 mean in person? Yeah, if you want to do another 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.760 live Christmas show, sure, Yeah, I'm done with that. I mean, 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:36.440 we paid money for Christmas decorations. We did not to 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.280 feel like we need to reuse those. YEA, hopefully everybody 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:42.640 has heard it already and now they're like, yes, I 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.040 know exactly what these guys are talking about, and I'm 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:50.680 enjoying this horribly awkward intro diversion. It's not awkward. Speaking 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:56.600 of intro divergence, Chuck, I want to mention two things. Okay, Um, 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.000 you know, the Stuff Network has a ton of really 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:04.600 good shows and there's one that I was on recently 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.120 called Behind the Bastards. I was on a two parter. 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.720 It was it was nice. So Robert Evans is the host, 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.480 and he basically just does tons of research about some 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.079 of the worst human beings who have ever lived, many 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.360 of whom are celebrated in some quarters, and he just 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.920 kind of tears him down to size. Did you do 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:27.080 a show on me? No, you're just celebrated. There's no 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:29.720 tearing you down. I'm sure people tear me down. I 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:33.119 don't care. The ones that I sat in on were, Um, 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:38.760 we're based on scientific racism, history of scientific racism and 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.640 how it's been used to justify like colonialism and all 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.000 sorts of stuff and the level of of research this 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.919 cat does is astounding. Yeah, it's a good show. It is. 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.679 It's a great show. So, um, I was on that. 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.600 But that's a good maybe a good primer, but really 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:57.840 any behind the Bastards would be a great place to start. Yeah, 0:02:57.840 --> 0:02:59.519 the show was was a and I don't want to 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:04.040 say some surprising success because Robert's awesome, but um, I 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.440 think everyone was just like, wow, look at this thing, 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.320 Look at him, go, look at him. Go. And we've 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.120 got another news show actually from our pals that stuff 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.320 to blow your mind. Joe and Robert. Yes, they just 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:21.000 launched a show called Invention. I don't remember if they 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.360 went with the exclamation point or not, but it's just 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.440 awesome because I think no, but that boy, their album 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.480 art is so cool. It's it's really great. It's just 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.359 a cool maze where you're just waiting for a minuteur 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:35.520 to leap out. Yeah. And for the people that are 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:37.480 like album art, what are you talking about? Did they 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.720 record an lp uh little industry lingo everybody, the little 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:46.040 icons that you see on your podcast players, it's called 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.040 album art in the industry for some reason. Yeah, I 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.280 still haven't figured that one out. I think it's just 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:57.680 a hold over from um iTunes days, I guess, But 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:59.800 like what, it would be funny if they called it 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:06.680 like the single art, that would be pretty funny. Actually, 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.760 still never bought a single in my life. Oh I have. 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.360 I don't remember what they were, but I have. So anyway, 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.840 go check out Invention. You're gonna love it. If you're 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:18.840 a stuff to blow your mind fan, it's Joe and 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.000 Robert doing their thing but on different topics, you're just 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:23.719 gonna love it. And then if you're not a stuff 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:27.440 to blow your mind fan, well you're welcome for introducing 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:31.240 YouTube to awesome podcasts at once. Yeah, those guys are great. Ye. 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.840 So uh okay, let's talk about our own thing. Okay, 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.360 let's do our own stuff. Yeah, what about us? So 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.919 we're talking, let's get in the way back machine, and 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.400 we need to put on our high temperature protective suits 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.760 that we used to hang out on volcanoes sometimes. Well, 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.600 and also our low temperature protective suits are in the back. 0:04:52.839 --> 0:05:00.680 They are we don't need them for this one. Well, 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:04.040 what day are we going to We're going to June eight, 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:09.159 so sure, it's probably about seventies seventy degrees actually early 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:12.320 in the morning. We're going to get there around around 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:14.920 seven am to give ourselves some time to get set up. 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.880 But seven am on June thirtieth, nineteen o eight in 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:25.200 the Russian wilderness around the Pudka Manya Tungusca, which means 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:30.880 the stony Tunguska River. Um, it was probably about fifty degrees, 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.840 Will say, okay, yeah, which is I mean that is 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.680 like choice summertime weather for the Siberian Plateau. Yeah, and 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.560 this place is gorgeous. So the stony Tunguska River is 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.159 a nice, wide, meandering, slow river, and it's name stony 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.120 because the bottom is all beautiful pebbles and it just 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.040 kind of its banks are not really well defined. It 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.480 just kind of goes into the land and swamp land 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:59.039 and then suddenly the land rises upward into ridges with 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:04.400 huge all evergreens everywhere. It's just gorgeous. I love it here. 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:06.559 You know what we call those rocks in the South 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.159 skipping rocks. They are skipping rocks. They call them that 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:17.040 in Russia too. Oh really yeah, Skivinski rocks. Emily the 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.159 other day was like, I wish I could skip rocks, 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:21.360 and I was like, dude, you just gotta get the 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.400 right rocks. That's really the key. I mean, this show, 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.919 there's techniques in the wrist and everything, but it really 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:30.480 is the rock. Although so there are people who can 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.440 skip just about any rock you handem well that I'm 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.279 a pretty good skipper, but you still need those good, little, smooth, 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.600 little river rocks. It's true. It makes it way easier 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.880 for sure. So in this beautiful place, I also failed 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.640 to mention there's lots of reindeer wandering around and they're 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.599 not wild. They're actually being herded by the Evenki people 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:54.520 also known as the toong goose Um, who are basically 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:58.160 nomadic reindeer herders that live in the area. Yeah, these 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:02.600 are working deer, right. So everything's pretty idyllic and sweet 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.680 and nice. It's the Siberian summer. And then all of 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:10.240 a sudden, there's a streak of cloud across the sky, 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.120 a fireball at the tip. It looks like about a spear, 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:16.960 and then all of a sudden, this is seven seventeen 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:20.320 am local time, all of a sudden, that fireball disappears, 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.760 and then a huge flash of light explodes in the sky. 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.640 And that's followed very quickly by a huge burst of heat, 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.840 and then after that is followed by a huge shock wave, 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.760 and a massive explosion has just taken place, the likes 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.560 of which have never been seen in recorded human history. Yeah, 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.680 where are we? Are We dead now? No, we're in 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.960 our protective bubble. Since we're actually visiting from another time, 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.840 we're still in this time. We're just kind of visiting 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.360 as in like a movie. I have never really quite 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.520 wrapped my head around the physics of it. But we're safe. 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.520 We're not dead now. If Jerry killed us while we 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:06.280 were paying attention to um, the Tungusco blast in this life, 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:11.160 we would be dead. Yeah. When you talk about explosions, um, 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.960 this was depending on where you look, Uh, it was 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.400 something in the order of a hundred to one thousand 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:22.640 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. I did 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.400 the math. I saw two hundred to two thousand times 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.240 more powerful. Yeah. Man, this that's the thing. When you're 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.640 talking about explosions in night. Sure it's gonna be arranged, 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.760 but the thing is, the Hiroshima bomb was fifteen killo 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.719 tons fifteen thousand tons of t NT yield. Yeah, it 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.800 was a big explosion, so much so and we'll get 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.040 to more details, but supposedly you could see the light 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.800 from this thing as far away as London. Yeah, there 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:54.760 was a lot of worldwide effects that happened from it. Yeah, 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.199 so the Hiroshima woman was fifteen kilo tons. This is 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:02.599 an estimated three to third mega tons, million tons of 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:08.120 t n T. Just an astoundingly greater explosive force, and 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.160 it just happened out of the blue, literally out of 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:16.120 the clear blue sky on this day, on June nineteen 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:21.599 o eight. Yep, that's right. And uh, thankfully it's not 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.560 a very populated area, but there there are people there, 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:31.160 and there are you know, native tribes people that make 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.320 their way there and they live in huts and they 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.000 raised those reindeer, and while there weren't a lot of 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:40.080 people there, it created Uh, it was. It was an 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:42.320 awful thing if you lived in the area. Some people 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:46.880 died of of shock and heart attacks, reindeer died, huts 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.040 were leveled. It really kind of wiped out the way 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.520 of life for these people. Yeah, yeah, big time, because 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:54.200 I mean, like, if you live in Siberia, you're spending 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.640 your summer like preparing for the winter, and this blast 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:01.640 like just leveled their supplies, the deer, the reindeer that 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:03.800 they depend on. It like had a huge impact on 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.360 them and some people some some people did die, although 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.520 I think um, no one died directly like being blown 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:14.080 to bits by the blast. It was like, um, elderly 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.880 people had heart attacks and things like that. Yeah, And 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.319 it ended up it was a very interesting pattern that 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.120 emerged here. So these trees were flattened out in a 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.160 radial pattern that pointed away from the center of this 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:32.000 explosion over an area this was about like close to 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.480 seven seventy five square miles. Oh my god, which is 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:40.959 a huge, huge explosion. Uh. There were trees that remains standing, 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.960 and this is really interesting, but there were no branches, 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:48.040 no leaves, no uh, no needles or anything. They were 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.719 just basically the the stem and the trunk of the 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:54.559 trees bear standing straight up. Yeah. And that that was 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.520 Those trees were right in the middle of the blast, 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.480 the radio blast pat Yeah. And the fact that they 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:05.199 were basically just stripped bear means that it was a 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:10.559 very huge but super fast impact that blasted all those 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:14.679 branches off without affecting the tree itself. Yeah. So the 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:19.640 this this blast, this explosion is very hot, fast, explosion 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.920 actually lit the trees on fire from the temperature that 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.839 formed the leading edge of the explosion, and then the 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:28.839 shock wave that followed that moved the air actually put 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.719 the fire out, so they were like flash charred and 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:37.640 then immediately extinguished. Yeah, there's one quote here from uh, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.040 I mean because this was there's not a lot of 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.719 direct accounts, but they do have a few, and we'll 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.319 talk about how in a minute. But this is one 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.559 hot wind blew past us the ground and all the 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:53.400 huts trembled, causing the sod packing to fall from the ceilings. 0:11:53.480 --> 0:12:00.480 The glass was blasted out of the window frames. Scary moment. Yeah, yeah, no, 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:04.920 I can't even imagine. Supposedly, the um the Evenki people 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:08.360 believed that their god ug Dy who is I think 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.880 the god of either lightning or fire or thunder one 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:15.080 of those. Um. I've seen different accounts of it. Um, 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.920 they that they assumed. So imagine this like you're the 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.079 only people that you're the only people are used some 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.720 reindeer hurting tribes people who live in the area. Um, 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.800 and this happens and you have no scientific frame of 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.320 reference for it, and UM, you believe your god came 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.000 to punish you wipe out all of your stores and 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:36.800 all of your reindeer and everything, and then that's just 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.120 what you had to live with. Because you were in 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:43.319 such a remote area. No one knew about this. No 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.320 one knew that this happened for a very long time, actually, 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:48.760 Like I think some of the local papers began to 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:50.920 report it by the end of the summer, but the 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.360 larger world had had no real ideal what had happened, 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.240 even though there were effects worldwide, but no one could 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.240 no one traced it back to this this moment in 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.679 Siberia for decades, at least a full decade I think 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.400 actually too. Yeah, And it wasn't like, uh, it wasn't 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.200 like the scientific community just descended upon this place ever, 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.240 really like they've and we'll talk about some of the 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.679 superstars of uh, particularly this one man that went and investigated. 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.520 But uh, I mean that's one of the reasons that 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.400 we still don't know exactly what happened. We have a 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.520 pretty good idea, which will say for later, but there 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.199 aren't Uh. This was a singular event. It's not the 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.240 kind of thing that we could say, well, this is 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:40.640 like that other thing that happened right exactly, Yes, yeah, Yeah, 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:44.280 it's it's there's nothing like although they they think that 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:48.400 there was at least one other thing that happened like 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:53.319 it in the twentie century. Um. Actually now to two 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.040 things have happened that are similar to it. So we're 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.120 kind of dancing around it a little bit. Um. But 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:01.080 let me tell you, let me point out one thing 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.719 that has happened. Even though this is considered far and 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:09.120 away the largest cosmic I guess explosion that you that 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.480 that we we have ever recorded, there was something else 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:16.400 that happened in Brazil in nineteen thirty near the Crusa. 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:21.520 I think I'm saying that right river um where there 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.840 was a very similar event, huge explosion in the sky 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:30.000 um scared the Bejesus out of the indigenous tribes living there, 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.880 burned a significant portion of the Amazon for a full month. 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:39.520 Um And there was a Jesuit missionary who um came 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.200 along five days after and got a lot of firsthand 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.120 accounts from that one. But they think it was similar 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.960 but much smaller than Tunguska. Yeah. And and the mystery 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:52.640 of this whole thing has led to some weird theories 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.000 that will hit on later that are I mean some 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.960 of them of course, just like aliens and beasts and 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.000 things like that, which is the we obviously no, that's 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.800 not the case, but it still remains somewhat of a 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.880 mystery after you know, a hundred plus years right um. 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.680 And then so there's one other that this was an 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:15.200 unrecorded history as far as we consider recorded history typically, 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.440 but there there's evidence that this happened one other time 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:22.360 and then this time people weren't so lucky. At something 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:27.400 like about thirty years ago around the Dead Sea um 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:33.560 there was a large area I think about five hundred 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.680 square kilometers wide, which is a pretty significant amount of 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.960 land that was just wiped bear of of life, including 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:45.600 humans living in the area at the time, and that 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.960 it was an explosion from the sky and it wiped 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:53.160 out one village in particular called tall l Hammam And 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:55.680 get this, chuck, you know what Tall l hamm was 0:15:55.760 --> 0:16:00.200 also called at this time thirty years ago. Saw them 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:02.960 that interesting. So they think that this is where the 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.760 legend of sodom being wiped out comes from. That it 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.840 was actually an explosion much like Tungusca. And they found 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:15.200 shards of um like pottery from the time that the 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.120 outsides have been turned to glass some of the particles 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.440 inside have been gasified. And for this to have happened 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:25.160 without like doing anything more to the to the pottery 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:27.800 means that it happened like in an instant, and that 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:31.000 the air temperature was suddenly about four thousand degrees fahrenheit. 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:33.920 And the other thing that happened too, and this I 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.760 think also kind of bolstered the Sodom legend, was that 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:42.080 um a lot of the dead sea salts were pushed 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:45.320 across the land, um over this huge amount of land 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.440 and took like what was once fertile and turned it 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:51.640 into like dead sterile land because it was salted, and 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.080 it took something like six years for the area to 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:59.720 recover from that. In that fascinating let's take a break, 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:01.720 because so I think you can tell him getting a 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.840 little worked up here. All right, Well we'll be right back, 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:32.080 everybody with more amazing nous, alright, dude. So from the outset, 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:38.720 some scientific minded types were like, well, I'm hearing reports 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.560 of this this weird event that happened in eight in Tunguska, 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.440 the Tungusca area, and it sounds to me a lot 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.600 like a meteorite. So I'm gonna go check out you know, 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:52.080 the whole thing and try to find this meteorite. Yeah, 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.359 I mean that was one of the early theories. Uh. 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.840 There were seismographs that did register some activity, so some 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.920 people thought it was an earthquake at first. Uh. It 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:05.080 lit up the sky um and created this massive dust plume. 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:09.119 So that's where people in like London and Germany. Um, 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.880 they said that they could read newspapers at midnight even 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:16.040 that far away. So it was it was causing a 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.040 little bit of commotion in the scientific community. Uh. And 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:23.040 still you know, consider this as was eight. Um. It's 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.399 hard for a word to get around, so you can 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.359 hardly blame people with you know, this event happened kind 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:30.639 of in the middle of nowhere in nineteen o eight, 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.359 and it didn't exactly like you know, shake the world. 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.320 But there was one man, uh and this was uh, 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:42.840 this was later on. His name was Leonid Kulick, and 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:44.960 he was He was a scientist. He had a pretty 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:48.760 interesting life and career. Um. He was born in eighteen 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.800 eighty three in Estonia, which was later part of the 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.119 Soviet Union. He studied math and he studied science. He 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:58.640 fought in both World War One and World War Two, 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:04.080 which is really interesting because I'm curious about the number 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.920 of people who were unfortunate enough to experience both those wars. Yeah, 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.040 there were probably a lot, not a ton. I mean, 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.199 if you do the math, like, you would have had 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:16.639 to have been pretty young and then pretty old to 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:21.360 have fought in both of these. Um. But in nineteen 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:26.480 uh one he had the task of examining meteorites within 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.120 the Soviet Union. And that's where I got the impression 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.000 that the first sort of a scientific fire was lit 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:37.440 under his his butt to uh to get into studying meteorites. Yeah, well, no, 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.399 he was already studying meteorites, and he heard some he 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.920 read some of those local press clippings that had had 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:48.240 been written like ten, ten or twelve years before, and 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.399 that that he kind of put piece together like, oh, 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.120 this sounds a lot like a meteorite impact. My job 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.159 is already to go fine meteorites because they you know, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.040 when they strike the ground, they have all of this 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.080 rich interroal or with them. So I'm gonna go find 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.159 it and um the government can come mind it, and 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.200 that's my job. So he if if Leonig Kulik had 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:13.119 not bred some of these accounts and then traveled to 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:18.040 the area. Um, we would probably not have anywhere near 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:22.680 the kind of um understanding or awareness of them the 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:29.320 impact that we have today. Yeah. So was that the 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.080 sinct enough for you? Yes? I think so? Okay, good? So, 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:35.080 like I was saying, in nineteen twenty one, he was, uh, 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:37.600 he was given the task of studying meteor rights in 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:41.440 the Soviet Union, and so by the time seven rolls around, 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.679 he's got a pretty good knowledge bed that he's sleeping 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:49.199 on every night, right, so he makes his first uh, 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.760 he makes eventually three trips here to try and study things. 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:55.920 The first one unfortunately he didn't even find the site 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.760 because there was poor mapping going on. Uh. He was 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:04.480 really sort of um charting new territory, exploring this area, 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.080 and was just getting help from anyone he could. A 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.879 lot of people were scared to go there because of 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:14.800 you know, they thought it was a judgment from the gods. Yeah. Yeah, 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.840 so it was, Um, it was slow going, so that 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:23.320 that first expedition in nine was basically to just say, hey, 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.200 I think I know where this actually happened. Like that's 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:29.800 how rudimentary things were back then. Yeah, he um, he 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.040 I think was so was it the first expedition in seven, 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:35.639 he didn't make it in Did he also make it 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.040 the same year or was it a different year? Did 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.000 he also make it back there the same year? Yeah? Uh, 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.240 well I saw that he went in twenty seven nine, Okay, 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.159 so what whatever time he made it in there, he 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:50.480 made it in there at least once there one the 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:54.640 first time. And he knew like pretty much right off 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:58.000 the bat that he had had found the site because 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:01.720 all around there were trees that were laying on their sides, 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.640 but they were all pointing in the same direction, which 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.159 you just don't see very often, Yeah, for sure. And 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:10.600 then that you know, those at the center of those 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.119 trees standing straight up with with nothing there was another 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:17.040 pretty good indication. Yea. So the thing the thing about 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:20.359 Leonid Koolik is is that he um, he was very 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:22.840 very frustrated. Like again, he was a meteor hunter, like 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:27.160 this is his his thing. Um. So he fully expected 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:31.480 to find an impact crater and hopefully the meteorite that 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:34.840 that had all sorts of iron or whatever or um 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:38.600 it bore for him to go back and tell everybody about. 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.639 But he couldn't. He could not find this. Um. He 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.119 did find those trees standing upright at the center that 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:48.200 indicated that the reason they weren't blown over was because 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.640 the force had blown directly down on top of them. 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:54.960 So he knew he'd found the center, but there was 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:58.600 no sign of an impact crater. And he suspected that 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:02.960 there was a swamp in the south just south of 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:06.200 the um, the place where the trees still stood, that 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:09.920 was hiding the impact crater and the meteorite itself. And 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:12.240 I think that's kind of like what he He went 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:14.600 to his grave believing that he just could never find 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:17.840 it because the swamp had basically swallowed it up. Yeah, which, 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:20.280 you know, you can't blame the guy in the in 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:25.119 the nineteen twenties. It was a pretty decent idea because 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:27.840 he and again you know he had he had no 0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:31.200 idea that, uh well, should we go ahead and say 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:35.880 what people think happened? Oh okay, alright, let's do it. Yeah, 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:40.960 he had no idea that a meteor could explode pre impact, 0:23:41.760 --> 0:23:45.840 which is basically what most people think happened. Now. Yes, Yeah, 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:49.560 he died in a Nazi sorry, a Nazi prison camp 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:53.080 in World War Two. Uh so he would not have 0:23:53.240 --> 0:23:56.040 been had the benefit of that knowledge that came later on. 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:58.240 I think starting in the fifties they started to really 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:01.880 suspect that. But at the time um when he came 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:05.320 back and said, this is definitely like, look at these pictures, 0:24:06.000 --> 0:24:09.680 an explosion unlike the kind that we are even remotely 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:12.840 capable of creating here on Earth. So therefore a natural 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:17.200 explosion took place here. I have photographic evidence here. I've 0:24:17.640 --> 0:24:22.399 interviewed locals who were there, so firsthand accounts of the experience. 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:26.480 I've documented all this stuff, and I cannot find the 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:30.040 meteorite or the impact crater. There's this sum total of 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:32.600 all the info that I can provide, and some people 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:35.280 took that and pieced it together to mean that, well, 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:38.239