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(Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, vol. 31, n. 5, 1999, p. 1591)
In July 14-30, 1999 an Italian scientific expedition was carried out in Tunguska (Siberia), the region of the 1908 explosion of a cosmic body. The main tasks of the expedition were: 1) to study the structure and sediments of Cheko, a small lake located near the epicenter of the Tunguska event; 2) to carry out an aerial photosurvey of the explosion site; 3) to collect wood, peat and rock samples; 4) to monitor gamma rays during the flight Italy-Siberia-Italy and in Tunguska.
1) Our bathymetric mapping of lake Cheko and ultrasound and radar subbottom surveys of stratigraphy suggest that the lake is older than the Tunguska event. 28 cores up to 2 m long have been extracted from the lake bottom (at depths up to 50 m). They show a clear stratigraphy and the analyses at the CNR Institute of Marine Geology in Bologna will hopefully throw light on the nature of the exploded body. 2) The aerial multispectral photosurvey (performed from visual to thermal infrared wave lenghts) together with our GPS coordinate measurements on the ground of some reference points, will be used to re-examine some details of the explosion. 3) The petrology and geochemistry of the Mesozoic igneous rocks outcropping in the Tunguska region is being studied and the collected wood, peat and rock samples will be analyzed in different laboratories to find traces of the cosmic body. 4) The data on gamma rays are being processed in the Bologna University to find their dependence on altitude, longitude, latitude and atmospheric conditions.
(*) TUNGUSKA99 EXPEDITION TEAM
ITALIAN PARTICIPANTS
AMAROLI Luca (Corpo dei Vigili del Fuoco, Bologna)
BENATI Luciano (Corpo dei Vigili del Fuoco, Bologna)
BIASINI Gianni (Communication Technology, Cesena)
BONATTI Enrico (Istituto di Geologia Marina CNR, Bologna)
CANCELLI Ferdinando (Molinette Hospital, Turin)
CASARINI Jeannine (Secondary School Gobetti, Turin)
COCCHI Marco (Corpo dei Vigili del Fuoco, S.G. Persiceto)
DESERTI Claudio (Corpo dei Vigili del Fuoco, Bologna)
DI MARTINO Mario (Turin Astronomical Observatory)
GASPERINI Luca (Istituto di Geologia Marina CNR, Bologna)
LONGO Giuseppe (University of Bologna)
PALAZZO Giovanni (Foto Leone, Turin)
PIPAN Michele (University of Trieste)
SACCHI Marco (Istituto Geomare Sud CNR, Naples)
SERRA Romano (University of Bologna)
VIGLIOTTI Luigi (Istituto di Geologia Marina CNR, Bologna)
ZUCCHINI Piero (Offshore Spa, Bologna)
RUSSIAN SUPPORT
ANDREEV Gennady (Tomsk Astronomical Observatory)
ANFINOGENOV John (Tomsk Educational Center)
BASKANOVA Tatyana (Krasnoyarsk University)
CHERNIKOV Andrei (Tomsk Economical Institute)
CHERNOVA Tatyana (Tomsk State University)
DOROSHIN Igor (Tunguska Meteorite Foundation, Tomsk)
KONONOV Evgueni (Moscow Institute Aviation Systems)
NESVETAJLO Valery (Tomsk State University)
PAVLOVA Larissa (Tomsk State University)
TSVETKOVA Ioulia (Moscow Institute Aviation Systems)
VASILIEV Nikolai (Tunguska Natural Reserve)
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