AUTHORS:

Ciechowska H., Fronczak A., Karasewicz M., Mocek K., Zawadzki M., Grad M.

ABSTRACT:

This paper presents four selected natural explosive events in Earth’s atmosphere. In chronological order: Tunguska Event (1908), Jerzmanowice Event (1993), Chelyabinsk superbolide (2013), and Pomorze bolide (2015). In case of Jerzmanowice Event, observations indicate on one or two explosions of ball lightning. The other cases have characterists of bolides which exploded in the atmosphere at height of 5-30 km. For those cases acoustic effects were recorded by seismic stations. Perhaps, Tunguska Event and Pomorze bolide were part of Taurides meteor swarm, which may mean that their origin is cometary. The Chelyabinsk superbolide was classified to ordinary chondrites (rock meteorites) containing small amount of iron and nickel, and could be a part of 2011 EO40 planetoid.

Przegląd Geofizyczny, 2020, vol. LXV(1-2), pp. 41-54, doi: 10.32045/PG-2020-003