Tunguska event in fiction

The Tunguska event—an enormous explosion in a remote region of Siberia on 30 June 1908 generally held to have been caused by a meteor air burst—has appeared in many works of fiction.^[1]

History

The event had a long-lasting influence on disaster stories featuring comets.^[2]

Cause

While the event is generally held to have been caused by a meteor air burst, several alternative explanations have been proposed both in scientific circles and in fiction.^[3]^[4]^[5] A popular one in fiction is that it was caused by an alien spaceship, possibly first put forth in Ed Earl Repp's 1930 short story "The Second Missile".^[4]^[6] It gained prominence following the publication of Russian science fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev's 1946 short story "Explosion";^[4]^[5]^[7] inspired by the similarities between the event and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Kazantsev's story posits that a nuclear explosion in the engine of a spacecraft was responsible.^[5]^[8]^[9] An alien spacecraft is also the explanation in Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem's 1951 novel The Astronauts and its 1960 film adaptation The Silent Star,^[5]^[7]^[10] as well as in Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's 1965 novel Monday Begins on Saturday,^[11] while a human-made one is to blame in Ian Watson's 1983 novel Chekhov's Journey.^[3]^[4]^[5] Additional variations on the spaceship theme appear in Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling's 1985 short story "Storming the Cosmos" and Algis Budrys's 1993 novel Hard Landing, among others.^[4] Another proposed explanation is that the cause was the impact of a micro black hole, as in Larry Niven's 1975 short story "The Borderland of Sol" and Bill DeSmedt's 2004 novel Singularity.^[5]^[12]

Effect

In Donald R. Bensen's 1978 novel And Having Writ..., the course of history is altered by the arrival of aliens to Earth in 1908, which also causes the Tunguska event.^[4]^[13] The 1996 The X-Files episode "Tunguska" revolves around the impact possibly having introduced alien microbial life to Earth.^[5] Ice from the impact turns out to have peculiar properties in Vladimir Sorokin's 2002 novel Ice and Jacek Dukaj's 2007 novel likewise titled Ice.^[14]

References

^ Wilson, Betsy (January 27, 2025). "The Tunguska Event: What Really Happened in Siberia in 1908?". scientificorigin.com. Retrieved 2025-02-18.
^ Caryad; Römer, Thomas; Zingsem, Vera (2014). "Moderne Mythen zu Kometen" [Modern Myths about Comets]. Wanderer am Himmel: Die Welt der Planeten in Astronomie und Mythologie [Wanderers in the Sky: The World of the Planets in Astronomy and Mythology] (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 308. ISBN 978-3-642-55343-1.
^ ^a ^b Pringle, David, ed. (1996). "Cosmic collisions". The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: The Definitive Illustrated Guide. Carlton. pp. 39–40. ISBN 1-85868-188-X. OCLC 38373691.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Stableford, Brian (2006). "Meteorite". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 301–303. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g May, Andrew (2017). "Tunguska". Pseudoscience and Science Fiction. Science and Fiction. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 32–35. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42605-1_2. ISBN 978-3-319-42604-4.
^ Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Bleiler, Richard (1998). "Repp, Ed[ward] Earl (1900 or 1901–1979)". Science-fiction: The Gernsback Years : a Complete Coverage of the Genre Magazines ... from 1926 Through 1936. Kent State University Press. p. 340. ISBN 978-0-87338-604-3.
^ ^a ^b Determann, Jörg Matthias (2020). "Missions and Mars". Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life: The Culture of Astrobiology in the Muslim World. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 68–69. ISBN 978-0-7556-0129-5.
^ Britt, Robert Roy (2004-08-12). "Russian Alien Spaceship Claims Raise Eyebrows, Skepticism". Space.com. Archived from the original on 2023-12-05. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
^ Randles, Jenny (1995). "1908: The Siberian Spacefall". UFO Retrievals: The Recovery of Alien Spacecraft. London: Blandford. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-7137-2493-6. Post-World War 2, aerial photos of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were compared with photos of the flattened Siberian taiga. They were stunningly similar. It took less than six months for someone to draw the obvious conclusion. A. Kasantsev, a science-fiction author, published a short story in January 1946 in which he offered serious speculation that an alien spacecraft powered by nuclear motors had blown up above Tunguska.
^ Westfahl, Gary; Stevens, Geoffrey (2023). "Schweigende Stern, Der". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-04-04.
^ Bruno, Andy (2022). "Cosmic Fantasies". Tunguska: A Siberian Mystery and Its Environmental Legacy. Studies in Environment and History. Cambridge University Press. p. 104. doi:10.1017/9781108887847.005. ISBN 978-1-108-84091-0. Boris and Arkady Strugatsky described another hypothesis about the cause of the 1908 blast that involved time-traveling aliens using countermotion in their novel Monday Starts on Saturday.
^ Clute, John (2022). "DeSmedt, Bill". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-04-05.
^ Clute, John (2022). "Bensen, D R". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-04-05.
^ Petzer, Tatjana (September 2013). "Re-Writing the Tunguska Event: The icy imagination of Vladimir Sorokin and Jacek Dukaj". Archives of the Arctic. Ice, Entropy and Memory.

[1] Wilson, Betsy (January 27, 2025). "The Tunguska Event: What Really Happened in Siberia in 1908?". scientificorigin.com. Retrieved 2025-02-18.

[WandererAmHimmelComets-2] Caryad; Römer, Thomas; Zingsem, Vera (2014). "Moderne Mythen zu Kometen" [Modern Myths about Comets]. Wanderer am Himmel: Die Welt der Planeten in Astronomie und Mythologie [Wanderers in the Sky: The World of the Planets in Astronomy and Mythology] (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 308. ISBN 978-3-642-55343-1.

[PringleCosmicCollisions-3] Pringle, David, ed. (1996). "Cosmic collisions". The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: The Definitive Illustrated Guide. Carlton. pp. 39–40. ISBN 1-85868-188-X. OCLC 38373691.

[StablefordMeteorite-4] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Stableford, Brian (2006). "Meteorite". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 301–303. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.

[MayTunguska-5] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g May, Andrew (2017). "Tunguska". Pseudoscience and Science Fiction. Science and Fiction. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 32–35. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42605-1_2. ISBN 978-3-319-42604-4.

[6] Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Bleiler, Richard (1998). "Repp, Ed[ward] Earl (1900 or 1901–1979)". Science-fiction: The Gernsback Years : a Complete Coverage of the Genre Magazines ... from 1926 Through 1936. Kent State University Press. p. 340. ISBN 978-0-87338-604-3.

[DetermannTunguskaEvent-7] Determann, Jörg Matthias (2020). "Missions and Mars". Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life: The Culture of Astrobiology in the Muslim World. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 68–69. ISBN 978-0-7556-0129-5.

[8] Britt, Robert Roy (2004-08-12). "Russian Alien Spaceship Claims Raise Eyebrows, Skepticism". Space.com. Archived from the original on 2023-12-05. Retrieved 2024-04-04.

[9] Randles, Jenny (1995). "1908: The Siberian Spacefall". UFO Retrievals: The Recovery of Alien Spacecraft. London: Blandford. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-7137-2493-6. Post-World War 2, aerial photos of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were compared with photos of the flattened Siberian taiga. They were stunningly similar. It took less than six months for someone to draw the obvious conclusion. A. Kasantsev, a science-fiction author, published a short story in January 1946 in which he offered serious speculation that an alien spacecraft powered by nuclear motors had blown up above Tunguska.

[10] Westfahl, Gary; Stevens, Geoffrey (2023). "Schweigende Stern, Der". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-04-04.

[11] Bruno, Andy (2022). "Cosmic Fantasies". Tunguska: A Siberian Mystery and Its Environmental Legacy. Studies in Environment and History. Cambridge University Press. p. 104. doi:10.1017/9781108887847.005. ISBN 978-1-108-84091-0. Boris and Arkady Strugatsky described another hypothesis about the cause of the 1908 blast that involved time-traveling aliens using countermotion in their novel Monday Starts on Saturday.

[12] Clute, John (2022). "DeSmedt, Bill". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-04-05.

[13] Clute, John (2022). "Bensen, D R". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-04-05.

[14] Petzer, Tatjana (September 2013). "Re-Writing the Tunguska Event: The icy imagination of Vladimir Sorokin and Jacek Dukaj". Archives of the Arctic. Ice, Entropy and Memory.

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