THE 1908 TUNGUSKA EXPLOSION AND THE PECULIARITIES OF THE SEISMIC PROCESSES IN THE XXth CENTURY

Yu.V. Volkov

Moscow State Uni. SRCC, Moscow

June 30, 1998 marks the ninetieth anniversary of the unusual natural phenomenon, called the “Tunguska meteorite” (TM). TM is a an intricate complex of processes, involving phenomena in the atmosphere, ionosphere and the Earth’s crust, the cause remaining a mystery till the present day.

Under the influence of the growing body of accumulating facts, the scientific conceptions of the nature of TM have evolved from the “iron meteorite” hypothesis (L.A.Kulik,1921) and the “stone meteorite” hypothesis (K.D.Yankovsky,1930) to the “small comet” hypothesis (PH.Wipple,1934, K.Florensky,1959). The latter was the object of criticism by F.Ziegel. Dissatisfaction with the explanations gave rise to a stream of new hypotheses that now number over a hundred.

Over the last few years many authors have come to the conclusion that we are dealing with a terrestrial “tectonic” phenomenon (A.YU.Olkhovatov, 1991; A.F.Chernyaev, 1992; G.G.Kochemasov,1998 and others.)This supposition has been corroborated by the character of the graph “latitude-time” for powerful earthquakes (M =/>8) over the period 1904 –1980, which revealed a sectioned “fan-like” structure with the centre : South Pole – the year 1908,5 (Volkov Yu.V. et al., 1997) The paper is devoted to the study of this unexpected link. The hypothesis of the relativistic “solenoid-condenser” as a possible explosion mechanism is also under consideration.