"Oops"

                                                        
Could the "Tunguska Event" been of human origin?
   In 1908, 37 years before the advent of nuclear weapons, an occurrence referred to as "The Tunguska Event" took place in a deserted North Russian forest which to this day remains unexplained. Observers many miles away witnessed a blue light as bright as the sun sweeping across the sky approximately 10 minutes before hearing a rumble which was described as the sound of intense artillery bombardment. For hundreds of miles, windows were shattered, people were knocked off their feet and many experienced intense winds and shock waves.
   When an expedition was mounted in 1921, surprisingly, no crater was found. A five mile area of scorched trees were still standing, surrounded by an 830 square mile field of trees that were leveled flat. This would suggest an explosion in the air somewhere above the blackened ground zero patch. This same result was observed in the air bursted atom bomb tests of the 1940's and 50's.
   Since then scientists have proposed many theoretical explanations, the most common being that it was caused by a meteor or comet. This seems to be the most plausible cause but has never been proven. It was proposed that a small black hole passed through the earth, but no point of exit was discovered. Some said that a tiny chunk of anti-matter, which annihilates matter on contact was the cause, but then why the "air burst" effect. Others said that an escape of natural gas had ignited, but this does not explain the strange "ground zero" pattern of trees. Of course there are those that chalk it up to some alien visitation but why waste our time.
   My favorite proposed cause, and the one I intuitively go with, is that a colossal science experiment went terribly wrong.
   At that time, Nicola Tesla, the electricity genius that gave the world alternating  current, was conducting experiments that might prove his theory that electricity could be drawn directly from the ionosphere. He was also working on, what he called, "directed energy weapons." These could transmit enormous energy directly through empty space. A kind of "lightning gun." He even tried to interest the War department in these theories but they were not interested. (The US Government did confiscate all his research notes when he died though.)
   My belief is that Tesla (or someone) had an accident. A BIG one. If a run-of-the-mill chemist makes an error he could blow up his entire lab. Tesla was hatching plans that involved such incredible scale and power that he easily could have leveled a forest thousands of miles away. He even said he could create earthquakes, simply by using sonic resonance. He claimed to have almost knocked down his apartment building at one time. And he would have, had he not switched off the device in time.
   Yes, If Tesla had any accident, it would have been on a grand scale. Perhaps he did. Then he took the knowledge of it to his grave. It gives one pause.