Word: tunguska
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...Geochemistry and Mineral Physics in Kiev have concluded that the blast was caused by something less exotic: a meteorite. Many scientists in the past refused to accept the meteorite theory because there is no trace of any impact crater at the center of the destruction, in the isolated Tunguska area, about 950 km (590 miles) north of Irkutsk...
...eruptions of molten magma through kimberlite, or volcanic, pipes. But extreme pressures also occur during high-velocity collisions between celestial objects; uralites, a class of meteorites that presumably have been involved in such deep-space impacts, contain such tiny diamonds. Since no volcanic pipes have been identified in the Tunguska area, Sobotovich concluded that the Siberian diamonds were formed far from the earth...
...below. Where did the meteorite originate? Slovak Astronomer Lubar Krésak has suggested that it was a chunk of Comet Encke, a periodic visitor to the earth's vicinity that is also the probable source of an annual meteor shower in late June-the time of the Tunguska event...
...Soviets are correct about the Siberian blast, they may be rewarded for their discovery. Because diamonds make up 1% to 2% of uralites, some 40 to 80 tons of these gems, which can be put to use in grinders, cutters and drill bits, should be scattered throughout the Tunguska area ready for the picking...
Subsequently, two imaginative University of Texas researchers suggested that a tiny black hole had passed through the earth in 1908, causing the mysterious blast that leveled trees for miles around in the Tunguska region of Siberia. But most scientists doubt that explanation. Says Princeton's Ostriker: "A hit by a mini-black hole would have blown up the entire earth...