It was early morning, June 30, 1908. Hundreds of people saw a blazing fire ball plummet down into the forest wilderness of Siberia. Then came a thundering explosion heard 600 miles away and shuddering earthquakes. A great meteorite had struck the earth, but the remote disaster area was not visited until 1927.

Thousands of great trees lay like match sticks, pointing away from the center where more that 200 craters pitted the ground. The site still has not been fully explored. The great meteorite, estimated at 40,000 tons, is believed to have shattered to fragments.