Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
In 1908, Siberia experienced a massive meteor explosion known as the Tunguska Event:
At 7:14 a.m. on June 30, 1908, a giant explosion shook central Siberia. Witnesses close to the event described seeing a fireball in the sky, as bright and hot as another sun. Millions of trees fell and the ground shook.
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The blast, centered in a desolate and forested area near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Russia, is estimated to have been a thousand times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The explosion leveled an estimated 80 million trees over an 830 square-mile area in a radial pattern from the blast zone. Dust from the explosion hovered over Europe, reflecting light that was bright enough for Londoners to read at night by it.
Russia just experienced another meteor explosion event, caught on videotape. This meteor appears to have been much smaller than the Tunguska Event, and caused far less damage, but it did cause damage to a populated area.
Here is a news report from Russia Today about the meteor explosion event (below the fold).
Here is another video from Russia Today, a raw feed of the meteor explosion (in Russian).