[meteorite-list] Tunguska Meteorite Fragments Must Be in a Different Place

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:07:05 2004
Message-ID: <200210311743.JAA17958_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/10/31/38941.html

Tunguska Meteorite Fragments Must Be in a Different Place
Pravda
October 31, 2002

Professor of physical chemistry from the Altay State University Vladislav
Batenkov thinks that traces of the Tunguska meteorite should not have been
searched for not directly under the meteorite's course, but rather in the
opposite direction.

Professor Batenkov graduated from the Chemistry Department of Tomsk State
University; he currently deals with transistor electrochemistry. He has
published several substantial monographs. Vladislav Batenkov is the creator
of 14 inventions. The professor said in an interview to the newspaper
Altayskaya Pravda: "The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite can be solved with
the help of the physicochemical properties of water. The explanation is
based upon water's ability to decompose in oxygen and hydrogen at
temperatures of over 1000 degrees centigrade. At the temperature of 5000
degrees centigrade, the decomposition occurs with detonation. When the
temperature of the oxygen and hydrogen (the detonating mixture) drops below
1000 degrees centigrade, water is generated again together with the
detonation."

Calculations have revealed that total amount of heat necessary to turn 1 kg
of meteorite ice into decomposition products (warming of ice, ice melting,
water heating, water evaporation, heating of the steam, and decomposition of
water vapor) is about 30.000 kilojoule per one kilogram. The quantity of
heat exuded at the deceleration of a one-kilogram meteorite to the zero
speed will be equal to its initial kinetic energy. Let's assume that the
speed at which the meteorite hits the Earth is 20 km per second. Then, the
quantity of heat exuded at the deceleration will be about 200.000 kilojoule
per kilogram. This is seven times more than necessary for melting, heating,
evaporation, and decomposition of water for the initial components.

However, not the whole quantity of heat will be spent on the water's
decomposition; a considerable quantity of heat will quickly disperse in the
atmosphere because of the high difference between the temperatures and the
meteorite's high speed in the atmosphere. Obviously, only the front part of
the meteorite has all the conditions necessary for an increase of the
pressure and temperature enough for water decomposition.

So, the falling of the Tunguska meteorite was as follows. A huge chunk of
ice entered the atmosphere at an acute angle, and then it started
decelerating increasing in temperature. There is evidence proving that the
meteorite's glow was first noticed near the city of Vladivostok, and the
meteorite's deceleration was registered at 4,000 kilometers, near the
Podkamennaya Tunguska River basin. The ice chunk increased in temperature
along the way, especially the front of the meteorite. The meteorite started
splitting into separate fragments. That is why several differently glowing
objects could have been observed by the end of the deceleration. By that
moment, the gases reached a maximum compression, and fragments of the
meteorite increased in temperature to several thousand degrees. At the end
of the motion, the clouds of water decomposition products (detonating gas)
compressed as a result of the fragments' deceleration and increase in
temperature and detonated in the atmosphere after quick expansion and
cooling. Forest fires and concentric forest falls were the consequences of
the detonation. Dust particles melted and fell down in the form of small
beads. It is likely that when the gas detonated, some tail-end parts of the
ice lump were cast away in a different, south-east direction. Thus, the
remains of the meteorite should have been searched for not along the
meteorites course, but in the opposite direction.

Professor Vladislav Batenkov can provide calculations proving his
hypothesis. He stresses that the Tunguska meteorite mystery hasn't been
explained yet with water decomposition into components and explosion of
detonating gas. According to the professor, it is difficult to determine the
total scale of the meteorite's impact upon the atmosphere of the Earth,
because the initial mass of the meteorite and the speed at which it hit the
planet are unknown. If we assume that the speed was 20 kilometers per second
and consider "an awful explosion equal to two thousands Hiroshimas," we can
estimate the mass of the Tunguska meteorite. According to Batenkov's
calculations, the mass of the meteorite made up 40,000 tons.

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian:
http://science.pravda.ru/science/2002/6/20/56/2229_meteorit.html
Received on Thu 31 Oct 2002 12:43:56 PM PST