Statements about the discovery of fragments of the Tunguska meteorite unfounded - Reuters

MOSCOW, May 3 – RIA Novosti. Scientists believe baseless statements researcher Andrew Zlobina Tunguska phenomenon of finding fragments of the Tunguska cosmic body.

“Even if we assume that he found the stones really meteorites (which is not yet proven), we still have to prove that it is fragments of the Tunguska. meteorites on Earth is full, for more than 100 years since since the fall of the Tunguska cosmic body in the area has fallen meteor dust and small meteorites larger than the mass of the body itself, “- said the Natalia Artemiev of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Geosphere Dynamics.

So she commented

placed in the electronic library at Cornell University to become an employee of the State Geological Museum Vernadsky Andrew Zlobina, in which he tells of the discovery of fragments of the Tunguska body.

Tunguska catastrophe took place over 100 years ago in the Stony Tunguska River basin, in the Evenki. Here, June 30, 1908 and flew fireball exploded. The expedition, to get to the disaster area in 1927, found fallen timber on an area roughly equal to modern Moscow, but at the blast site was not found any trace of the fall or the wreckage of the cosmic body. After many years of searching has not been found even dust particles that could be confidently attributed to the substance of the Tunguska object. According to most scientists, Tunguska body was a small comet, which is completely evaporated at high altitude.

However

Zlobin, which since the 1980′s, has been studying the Tunguska event, says that he was able to find these pieces. In his article, he reports that in 1988, during an expedition to the area of ??the Tunguska event was found about a hundred stones, among which were three that he found fragments of the Tunguska body.

Zlobin writes that he found them in the mainstream Hushmy after attempts to find the wreckage of a cosmic body in pits in the layer, in which there were traces of a fire in 1908, have not been successful. In favor of extraterrestrial origin found three fragments, in his opinion, said that they all melted, have traces of heat and shock, as well as have a “rusty” color, which indicates the high content of iron. However, a full chemical analysis of fragments was carried out. Zlobin does not explain why he reported the find only 25 years later.

Artemyev surprised that Zlobin tried to geochemical analysis of the fragments.

“This is ridiculous, not by appearance of stone to say that it was a meteorite.

Only

geochemistry we can say something about the nature of the meteorite. It is elementary enough to come to the Institute (of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry) Vernadsky where investigate meteorites, “- said the agency interlocutor.

Signs that Zlobin cites as evidence of meteorite nature, do not stand up to scrutiny, “In the meteorites are no vitreous cortex, they do not happen quartz, as evidenced Zlobin” – said Artemyev.

Even if proven nature of the meteorite fragments of it can not be concluded that they are fragments of the Tunguska cosmic body.

“Pieces of meteorites can be found everywhere and always. fragments Search Tunguska body to where there is a very good stratigraphy (good dating geological layers.) not in Siberia, but somewhere in Greenland, where We can certainly say that this is a layer of ice by 1908. If we find something there, then we can say that it was the Tunguska “- said Artemyev.

She noted that the stones in the river bed can be brought anywhere.

“I believe that there is no basis for scientific discussion,” – she concluded.

Evenk district