Question

On June 30th, 1908, a tremendous explosion occurred high in the atmosphere over Tunguska, Siberia. The explosion registered on seismometers around the world, and a barometric pressure spike was observed thousands of miles away in London. The area was so remote that no scientific investigation was made until 1921. When scientists arrived, they found that trees had been flattened over an area of about 830 square miles. The energy of the explosion has been estimated at 10 - 30 Megatons of energy.

Assume that the explosion was caused by a meteoroid entering Earthʼs atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour, and that its explosive energy was equivalent to 20 MT. What was the mass of the meteoroid? 1MT = 1E15 calories.

Answer 1