From Tunguska to Chelyabinsk via Jupiter

The Tunguska event remained enigmatic for almost 100 years until the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994 helped to resolve this enigma and allowed us to adequately interpret the more recent Chelyabinsk event. Airbursts typically occur if a meteoroid entering Earth's atmosph...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inAnnual review of earth and planetary sciences Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 37 - 56
Main Authors Artemieva, Natalia A, Shuvalov, Valery V
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Palo Alto Annual Reviews 01.01.2016
Annual Reviews, Inc
Subjects
airburst
Atmosphere
Atmosphere entry
Civilization
Disturbances
Earth atmosphere
Earth science
Extraterrestrial materials
Extraterrestrial matter
fragmentation
Jupiter
meteoroid
Meteoroids
Meteors & meteorites
Plumes
Shock waves
Time
TNT
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The Tunguska event remained enigmatic for almost 100 years until the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994 helped to resolve this enigma and allowed us to adequately interpret the more recent Chelyabinsk event. Airbursts typically occur if a meteoroid entering Earth's atmosphere is 10-100 m in diameter, i.e., its energy ranges from 0.5 (Chelyabinsk) to 20 (Tunguska) Mt TNT. All this energy is released in the atmosphere with strong shock waves generated during the entry reaching the surface and causing substantial damage. Atmospheric plumes are capable of dispersing extraterrestrial materials worldwide. Modern civilization is extremely vulnerable to those relatively small disturbances that recur on a decadal timescale and are still difficult to predict.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0084-6597
1545-4495
DOI:10.1146/annurev-earth-060115-012218