Geochemical evidence for the characteristic of the 1908 Tunguska explosion body in Siberia, Russia

Twenty-two peat samples collected at different depths of a core including the layer affected by the 1908 explosion in Tunguska area of Central Siberia, Russia, and three basalt samples collected near the site, are analyzed by ICP-MS. The concentrations of Pd, Ni, Co, ΣREE, Ti and Sr in the event layers are 4–35 times higher than the background values in the normal layers. The variation of Pd is closely related to Ni, Co and ΣREE in the event layers, but not to these elements in the normal layers. It indicates that these excess elements came from the same source, i.e. the Tunguska explosion body. In addition, the patterns of Cl-chondrite-normalized REE in the event layers ((La/Yb)_N ≈2–3) are much flatter than those in the normal layers ((La/Yb)_N ≈7–143), and differ from those in the three basalt samples. The concentrations of REE in the three basalt samples are tens times higher than those in the event layers. It may be inferred that these excess elements could not be produced by the contamination of the terrestrial material, but probably by the Tunguska explosion body. Additionally, the ratios of Ti/Ni and Sr/Co in the event layers are close to those in comet. It implies that the solid part of the explosion body was compositionally similar to carbonaceous chondrites (Cl) and more probably a small comet. In terms of the Pd excess fluxes in the explosion area, it can be estimated that the celestial body that exploded over Tunguska in 1908 weighed more than 10⁷ tons, corresponding to a radius of > 126 m.