History Main / TheTunguskaEvent

Other less credible, but more interesting, theories suggest that the event was caused by: a deuterium-rich meteorite causing an all-natural thermonuclear explosion; a chunk of antimatter; a miniature black hole passing through the Earth; an alien spacecraft crashing or discharging some kind of superweapon; psychic experiments or magic rituals gone wrong; or a test run of UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla's DeathRay.

** The event has also been the source of PhlebotiniumKilledTheDinosaurs explanations in the expanded universe.

** The event has also been the source of PhletobiniumKilledTheDinosaurs explanations in the expanded universe.

In 2007 a small lake [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Cheko Cheko]] has been suggested to have an impact origin. It's absent from 19th century maps (albeit rather inaccurate) and appears only from 1929 onward, it has unusual shape, it's only 8 km from the epicenter. But this hypothesis requires further investigation. As of 2013 the meteorite still hasn't been found.

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** In the main 616 continuity, as part of the ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'' crossover, Mighty Avengers vol. 2 #12 reveals the Tunguska Event was part of an ancient cabal of powerful immortal rulers using a magic ceremony to create a powerful animal/human creature (a character called 'The Bear', introduced in an earlier "[[{{retcon}} flashback]]" Iron Man.

* In ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'', the event was caused by a 20-ton rock, sent to Earth by the [[EldritchAbomination Ogdru Jahad]]. This rock is vital for opening the [[{{Hellgate}} portal to the Void]].

** This [[DependingOnTheWriter contradicts other throwaway references]] to the cause of the event, like Kang redirecting a direct blast from Black Bolt there, or Doom, Iron Man and Johnny Storm having a fight with him on his time machine. If it's not an allohistorical reference, chances are that huge explosions mixed with time travelers will be the cause.

** In the main 616 continuity, as part of the ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'' crossover, Mighty Avengers vol. 2 #12 reveals the Tunguska Event was part of an ancient cabal of powerful immortal rulers using a magic ceremony to create a powerful animal/human creature (a character called 'The Bear', introduced in an earlier "[[{{retcon}} flashback]]" Iron Man run)

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Ebenezar [=McCoy=] [[HistoricalInJoke takes credit for this]] in one book. He probably [[ColonyDrop used an actual asteroid, too]]; doing so is [[PersonOfMassDestruction within his capacity]].

* Alexander Kazantsev published a sci-fi story in 1946 where the explosion was a nuclear-powered Martian spacecraft blowing up. This was likely the source of the RealLife theory that aliens were involved in the explosion. In fact, some entirely fictional elements of the story were later mistaken for things that actually happened around the event, in particular the claim that local residents experienced illness suspiciously similar to acute radiation poisoning.
* ''Literature/MissPeregrinesHomeForPeculiarChildren'' has the explosion as the first encounter with the Hollowgast, a group of evil magicians.

* Also occurs in the novels ''Titan, Wizard and Demon'', where it was an experiment by the habitat to see if it could hit earth with a rock should it need to destroy us.
* Ebenezar [=McCoy=] [[HistoricalInJoke takes credit for this]] in one of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' books. He probably [[ColonyDrop used an actual asteroid, too]]; doing so is [[PersonOfMassDestruction within his capacity]].

* In Creator/ThomasPynchon's ''Against the Day'', the event is implied to be connected to Tesla's experiments and/or something invading from AnotherDimension and/or a monster unleashed from BeneathTheEarth; it's all [[MindScrew a bit confusing]].

* The theory that a quantum black hole was the cause of the event is near-proven in Creator/LarryNiven's "Literature/TheBorderlandOfSol" after such were found by extrapolating possible orbits from the time and location of the event.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Literature/PastDoctorAdventures novel ''Wages of Sin'', the Third Doctor takes his companions Liz and Jo back in time to watch the Tunguska event; they become entangled in contemporary Russian politics, but there's nothing weird about the event itself, which is just a meteoroid -- as far as they know. In the Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''Birthright'', featuring the Seventh Doctor, the event turns out to have been caused by a TARDIS exploding.

* In Kage Baker's ''Literature/TheCompanyNovels'', a defective Immortal claims responsibility for the event, saying that he found that using time travel in a manner other than the series' standard StableTimeLoop method will punch holes in the fabric of reality. He also claims to have wiped out the dinosaurs. It isn't clear if this is the truth, though; he might've been lying, or just completely insane.
* In Creator/StanislawLem's ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'', time-traveling scientists try to straighten the Earth's axial tilt to make the climate more even. However, they screw it up, the machine they use explodes, and a piece of debris causes the Tunguska Event.
** And in ''Literature/TheAstronauts'' it's an alien spaceship that crashed, carrying some cultural artifacts.
* William Barton and Michael Capobianco wrote the 1995 SherlockHolmes short story "The Adventure of the Russian Grave" in which Professor Moriarty's only canonical mathematical paper, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dynamics_of_an_Asteroid The Dynamics Of An Asteroid]]'', is a BatmanGambit designed to engage Holmes' love of mysteries. It is a trap intended to bring him and Watson to Tunguska on that day at that time. When Holmes realizes this, he and Watson run for their lives, barely making it out alive.
* In Julian May's ''Literature/{{Intervention}}'', the crash landing alien spaceship version is used. When real aliens visit the site on the centennial of the event, it is widely believed to be a hoax.
* In ''Literature/TheMysteryOfUrulgan'' by Creator/KirBulychev, Professor Mueller alludes to the Tunguska Event when he is talking with Veronica about meteors.
* In Literature/{{Leviathan}}, UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla caused the explosion by using his DeathRay, Goliath. He wishes to use this weapon to stop [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the war.]] [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} in that it doesn't work. The explosion at Tunguska was actually caused by an asteroid like in real life, and Tesla was only testing Goliath at the same time and ended up [[CorrelationCausationGag believing that he caused the explosion]].]]
* In Literature/TheGrimnoirChronicles by Creator/LarryCorreia, set in the early 1930s, a Tesla superweapon caused the Tunguska Event. Preventing the weapon from being used again is central to the plot of ''Hard Magic'', the first book in the series.
* In the Superman/Batman novel ''Enemies and Allies'', Lex Luthor's Russian allies have a large kryptonite-bearing meteorite implied to be the Tunguska rock. The radiation has horribly deformed the trees and wildlife around the area, and does the same to humans.
* In ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture'', it is stated that the first attempt in time travel involved a kitten who became the Tunguska Event. A later novel, though, has two researches traveling to see it and finding it a natural phenomenon.
* In the Creator/JacekDukaj's science-fiction/alternative history book entitled ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_(Dukaj_novel) Ice]]'' (polish: "Lód") Tunguska Event caused dramatic change of the laws of physics.
* There is a short story that goes for two-in-one: the Tunguska Event is caused by the explosion of an alien starship... which was caused by said ship getting hit by a meteorite. For bonus points, Rasputin is involved.
* In the 'Literature/JoeLedger' series novel ''Extinction Machine'', the Tunguska Event was caused by an alien spacecraft crash landing. The resulting debris is highly sought after by certain groups.

* The "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E08Tunguska Tunguska]]" episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' takes place in the region and it was implied (if not outright stated) to be a meteor strike, the meteor in question containing some of the [[PuppeteerParasite Black Oil]], which was used by the Russian counterpart to [[TheConspiracy the Syndicate]].
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek Dalek]]": Henry van Statten, scavenger of alien tech, claims to have found the cure for the common cold in "the Russian crater".
* Sulu mentions the Tunguska Event in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E17ThatWhichSurvives That Which Survives]]" as a comparison to a similar event that befalls the crew. Kirk responds, [[IfIWantedXIWouldY "If I wanted]] [[GloriousMotherRussia a Russian history lesson]], I would have brought [[FunnyForeigner Mr. Chekov."]]
* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'': The Tunguska Scroll from "[[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS2E11E12EnemyOfTheBane Enemy of the Bane]]" was recovered from the site of the Tunguska Event, unsurprisingly.
* ''Series/SevenDays'': While the American TimeTravel program got their Element 115 from the {{Roswell|ThatEndsWell}} crash, the Soviet program got theirs from a crash in Siberia.

* Footage of the 2013 Tunguska Event is used in ''Series/BrainDead2016'' to represent footage of the meteor full of space bugs crashing to Earth.
* According to ''Series/TheTick2016'', the Tunguska event was an alien object exploding just above earth's surface, which created all the superheroes, including the first one, Superion, who emerged from the explosion's center.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation houses [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-873 SCP-873]] which is believed to have either have gained its unusual properties on the night of the Event or to have been the ''cause'' of the Event. The exact connection remains unknown.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "It Could have Been Great", Peridot shows Steven [[spoiler:the global plans of the Homeworld's colony.]] The [[https://i.imgur.com/dChUNBY.jpg map]] shows a giant rift forming an ocean where a large part of Russian Siberia should be, as an indication of the Gem war's effects with its AlternateHistory. The gem structure at the center of the ocean is right about where the Tunguska Event occurred. A map in the show's artbook labels the gem site as the [[PortalNetwork Galaxy Warp]] and the body of water as the "Tunguska Sea".

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "It Could have Been Great", Peridot shows Steven [[spoiler:the global plans of the Homeworld's colony.]] The [[http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/steven-universe/images/f/fd/It_Could%27ve_Been_Great_00132.png map]] shows a giant rift forming an ocean where a large part of Russia should be, as an indication of the Gem war's effects with its AlternateHistory. The gem structure at the center of the ocean is right about where the Tunguska Event occurred. A map in the show's artbook labels the gem site as the [[PortalNetwork Galaxy Warp]] and the body of water as the "Tunguska Sea".

-->'''Dr Ray Stantz:''' You have been a participant in the biggest interdimensional cross rip since the Tunguska blast of 1909![[note]][[CriticalResearchFailure (－‸ლ)]][[/note]]

-->'''Dr Ray Stantz:''' You have been a participant in the biggest interdimensional cross rip since the Tunguska blast of 1909![[note]][[CriticalResearchFailure (facepalm)]][[/note]]

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation houses [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-873 SCP-873]] which is believed to have either have gained its unusual properties on the night of the Event or to have been the ''cause'' of the event. The exact connection remains unknown.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11253460/1/Say-It-Thrice Say It Thrice]]'', a crossover between ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', the event was caused by a ghost in possession of the [[ArtifactofDoom Gem of Osiris]].

* In Creator/ThomasPynchon's ''Against the Day'', the event is implied to be connected to Tesla's experiments and/or something invading from AnotherDimension and/or a monster unleashed from UnderTheEarth; it's all [[MindScrew a bit confusing]].