Possible Meteorite Fragments from 1908 Tunguska Explosion Found

http://www.universetoday.com/101916/possible-meteorite-fragments-from-1908-tunguska-explosion-found/#ixzz2SN9v6ltZ

The 1908 explosion over the Tunguska region in Siberia has always been an enigma. While the leading theories of what caused the mid-air explosion are that an asteroid or comet shattered in an airburst event, no reliable trace of such a body has ever been found. But a newly published paper reveals three different potential meteorite fragments found in the sandbars in a body of water in the area, the Khushmo River. While the fragments have all the earmarks of being meteorites from the event – which could potentially solve the 100-year old mystery — the only oddity is that the researcher actually found the fragments 25 years ago, and only recently has published his findings.

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I’ve got lots of things found 30 years ago that I’ve not yet written papers about so I don’t see it as odd in taking one’s time to get the story right.

Interesting but how, as we say in the classics, are they going to test the hypothesis?

dv said:

Interesting but how, as we say in the classics, are they going to test the hypothesis?

interesting bit from the comments

How would such material help? I don’t think there is any material that has been tied to the Tunguska event, even less identified as dated meteorite material.

EDIT: Ah, I was wrong. The Wikipedia link (see my previous comment) has a reference where they find dated material. Some of that come from being embedded in resins of surviving trees, compatible with atmospheric dispersal:

“The main part of the TCB particles found in resin of the branches of the tree survived during the Tunguska event has the similar size (0.5–3µm) as well.” ( http://tunguska.tsc.ru/f/3598/… )

Apparently that material, as well as the more extensive peat sediment material, was amenable for composition analysis. So it would be useful indeed.

http://tunguska.tsc.ru/f/3598/MainPart/gaat108550.pdf

There have been at least two previous expeditions to the area that looked as hard as they could for meteorite fragments and didn’t find any, even with a microscope.