Tunguska Event a 100-year-old mystery

Moscow -- Scientists are in Siberia this week to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event, a mysterious explosion that flattened millions of trees.

The June 30, 1908, explosion was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in World War II, destroying an area of around 830 square miles, RIA Novosti reported. The area was so remote, however, that the event went largely unnoticed until a scientific expedition visited the site in 1927.

It was assumed the explosion was caused by a large meteorite but no crater has ever been found. Scientists speculate it may have been an airborne explosion.

A statue of the Evenki god of thunder will be placed at the site where the meteorite is believed to have crashed, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.