Tunguska, part 2.

The Tunguska event occurred at a remote time in a remote place. This fact has served both to add mystery to the story, and to frustrate those interested in knowing what happened.


The explosion was centered in the middle of Siberia, some 1000 km northwest of Lake Baikal (the largest freshwater lake in the world).

To reach the site, one could start from the Imperial capital of St Petersburg, taking the overnight train to Moscow.

From Moscow, one would board the still-new Trans-Siberian Railroad, leaving again in the evening, heading east towards the Urals, through Ekaterinaburg (where the Tsar and his family would be killed by the Bolsheviks), then skirting the edge of Kazakhstan, through Novosibirsk, then Krasnoyarsk, then to the town of Tayshet.

This town is at the 'shoulder' of the curve where the railroad turns to the southeast, to Irkustk and Lake Baikal.

From Tayshet, then, one must hire teamsters: horse-drawn sledges would provide the best transport over still-primitive roads.

Head north-east, passing well-west of Bratsk, and after 500 km or so, one would reach the town (although that would be a generous description) of Vanavara.

Vanavara lies about 70 km to the southeast of the Tunguska site. This is a small settlement with a trading post, and really the closest developed area to the site.

From here, one would need to speak with the indigenous people, the Tungus (now known as the Evenks), for guidance on reaching the blast centre.

This area of Siberia is still unpopulated and undeveloped in 1908. The Tungus people live as reindeer herders, maintaining a semi-nomadic culture in the forest. The western settlers are here as hunters and trappers and such, or here to escape the reach of the Tsar's empire.

After the "reforms" of the church in 1652 by Patriarch Nikon, the so-called Old Believers who did not support the changes were exiled to Siberia. A number of these staroobryadtsy ("old ritualists") lived in the area. (Due to a difference in how times of the day were called by the Old Believers -- compare our uses of "dinner" and "supper" in English -- their testimonies about the disaster would be called inconsistent with those of the other population.)

The wilderness around the Tunguska site is made up of taiga forest, a sub-arctic type of biome consisting of coniferous trees, and only the hardiest of deciduous trees, e.g. spruce, larch. The forest is dense, and the ground cover is moss and lichen. A forest fire, started by lightning, had destroyed a considerable area about one hundred years prior, and most of the trees that would be claimed in the blast would be only 100 years old.

The Tungus tribe gave its name to two rivers in the area, tributaries of the great Yenisei which flows north into the Arctic Ocean: the Nizhnyaya ("Lower") Tunguska and Podkamennaya ("Stony") Tunguska rivers. "Stony" is the usual English translation, but it literally means "under-stone", as the river flows under pebbles for part of its course. The Stony Tunguska is the closest to the blast site.

What would become the epicentre is a swamp; the first expedition to the site in 1927 would label them the Northern and Southern Swamps. Flies and mosquitoes form large clouds over the swamps during the short-but-hot summers. Other wildlife in the region are reindeer (a herd of 700 or so kept by the tribesmen), bears, turkeys, and smaller forest mammals.

The Tungus practice a animistic/naturalistic polytheistic religion. The loan-word "shaman" comes from their language, and coincidentally, a shaman of one of the local tribes would be blamed (or lauded, depending on which tribe was doing the talking) for the blast, having called down the wrath of Agdy, the god of thunder.

By all accounts, the morning of June 30 was clear, hot, and dry. There were no clouds in the skies over most of the region. It was a Tuesday; by the old-style Julian calendar, it was the 17th of June, one week before the feast of the nativity of St John the Forerunner for the Orthodox, and close to the summer solstice for the Tungus' native religion.

What happened next was otherworldly: at 7:14 AM local time, an explosion occurred near 60 degrees north latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, destroying some 10,000 square kilometres of forest.

The Tunguska Event at 100.

On June 30, 1908 (NS) *, at 7:14 A.M., a massive explosion occurred in the taiga forest deep in Siberia, near the Tunguksa river, leveling trees up to 30 km away from the centre of the blast, and causing global climatic and geophysical sequelae.

This event has captured the enduring interests of scientists, both professional and laymen, and has intertwined itself in popular culture, science fiction, and conspiracy theories.



The devastation, as recorded by Leonid Kulik during expeditions beginning in 1921, would remain unparalleled until the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

While the immediate effects of the explosion were confined to the swamps and forest within 40-50 km of the centre, the blast caused a number of global atmospheric phenomena, e.g., noctilucent clouds which made it possible to read the newspaper, or take photographs at night, in London. Seismometers read tremors that would register in the 5s on the modern Richter scale, and microbarometers recorded a shock wave that traveled around the globe at least twice before dissipating.

The local tribesmen thought that the wrath of the thunder god Agdy had been brought down by a neighbouring tribe's shaman. Peasant villagers sent a delegation to the local archpriest to ask how the preparations for the end of the world were coming along. Scientists in the European capitals tried to connect the phenomena of the atmospheric and geologic activities.

In this modern day of instant access to all manner of information (I am currently watching lightning-strike data superimposed on a Doppler radar loop, as storms approach from the west), it is hard to imagine that an event of the magnitude of Tunguska could occur without some knowledge of just what happened.

Over the next few days I will be presenting some further discussion regarding the event, which connects to several points of our collective Victorian/steampunk experience.

--
* The local date was June 17 using the so-called "Old Style" Julian calendar. The majority of the west had already adopted the Gregorian (or "New Style") calendar, but the Russians, being, well, Russian and Orthodox, did not take well to innovation, especially innovation coming from the Bishop of Rome. But that is clearly a story for another day.

'The World is Just Awesome'. Plus, Kate's sister.

In the event that you, dear reader, have not yet seen this, I pass along a link to the Discovery Channel's infectious 'The World is Just Awesome' promotion.

I cannot take full credit for finding it; that goes to Mr J J Drinkwater.

If you find yourself humming it all day long, well, don't say that I didn't warn you. Infectious!

The good people at Discovery.com have provided a method by which one may download the MP3 file, the video, and ring tones for one's portable telephone.

Now, here is the surprising part: at about 30 seconds in to the film, I do believe I spotted my dear sister Sophie*:


She "loves Egyptian kings", as the lyrics go. As I am the (slightly) more squeamish of the two of us, I'm more than happy to allow her to do all the up-close corpse work.

Now in case you cannot see the obvious family resemblance, I offer this crude figure which may clear things up a bit:


Not only is she the smarter one, her eyesight is better, leaving me the only one in the family requiring spectacles. Oh, and she's a soprano, too. None of this alto-register business for her.

I do think the glasses look grand on her, though, and I'm glad she is aging gracefully, since this is what I suspect I will look like in another *cough*-mumble years. Did I mention that she's the older sister?

In any event: do yourself a favour, and, next time you need re-affirmation of just how awesome the world is, listen to the song. Even helps put one's mind off sibling rivalry, mostly.

Regards,

Katya.

--
* N.b.: Naturally, she isn't really my sister; I haven't the foggiest idea who they found to play Sophie's part in this advert. Incredible likeness, though, and the voice is spot-on.

Photograph of the day: mainland advertising.

This is what I believe the mainlanders term an "ad farm" :



The effect of such surroundings on the prevalent real-estate values is substantial, I fear.

Additional notes from the field.

Okeanos Magic, Tanarian Davies, Audrey Fotherington, Bryndal Ellison, Jayleden Miles and Galactic Baroque have contributed further notes from their outings, again advancing our understanding of Nature here in the Realm.

The wiki (http://www.caledonwiki.com/index.php?title=Shrooms) continues to be updated by divers mycophiles as well.

G. Baroque has provided some interesting data regarding the timing of the appearance of species, and thereby has raised an interesting point: with enough data, could one construct an algorithm for predicting the appearance of a particular species in a particular period of time?

--

26 May.

Lovelace (Rezzer L - A-D)
B. camelopardis, leopardis 13:10 local/22:20 SLT
B. dalmatia 15:46/22:56, 17:22/23:20, 18:24/23:31, 18:36/23:32, 19:46/23:38, 00:42/00:02
? 01:30/00:06

Glengarry
Bellambia, 05:26 lcl/00:26 SLT (2nd one of that night)
Davanicus, 06:00 lcl/00:29 SLT, 06:36 lcl/00:31 SLT

Absinthe
Elf Ear, 01:52 ( ), 09:33, 09:50
[Previous nights' Winterfell observations courtesy, in part, of Audrey Fotherington and Bryndal Ellison]

Laudanum
Cutie, 08:32, 08:57 and 09:05 (Bryndal Ellison), 10:09

27 May.

B. tigris, 20:45? lcl / 15:39 SLT
Eyre, RCT, 02:20 lcl/23:22 SLT

29 May.

Eyre, Davanicus: no specific local times, all between 18:00 and 02:00/11:55, 12:00, 12:07 SLT

Lovelace, B. tigris: 02:00lcl/20:09 (Fawkes Allen)
Eyre, Davanicus: 03:45lcl/20:15; 05:04/23:23

One Night in Lovelace
Okeanos Magic, 2008-05-30 10:04:22
In the interest of scientificalism , I passed an entire night cycle in Lovelace, and scooped up EVERY SINGLE mushroom that rezzed. This was the local night session that begins around 7:30 AM SLT. I arrived at the Lovelace ring at 5:52 PM and my computer crashed just after 7 AM local time (roughly 8:45 AM SLT)

My tally for the evening is as follows:
B. camelopardis: 22
B. dalmatia: 11 (exactly half as many as the camelopardis - interesting)
B. leopardis: 19
B. tigris: (and pardon me for getting unscientific for a moment) a big fat stinking ZERO!!!!!!

Yours in service to the society,
Okeanos Magic

--

Galactic Baroque shroom notes 1
Monday, May 26, 2008

Caledon Eyre (rezzer 1)

Eyre species appear on a day/night rotation. Dr. Bob in Glengarry (rezzer 2) also confirmed a shift in species at sunset.

I took timemarked notes for 379 consecutive minutes. Because of the day/night roation, I conjecture that probability per cycle is more significant than the time interval since last appearance. However, I can send you the time marks if you are tracking those.

Also significant is an apparent "clock" with a one minute interval. The second hand on my watch was nearly always in the same position when a shroom appeared, lag could account for the very very few exceptions. So, one may also count a 25th outcome, "none," when calculating probabilities.

Partial Day cycle: 140 minutes, 103 shrooms
(species/shroom count count/percentage by shrooms count/percentage by clock count)
Caledonus 65 63.11% 46.43%
Xenobiologus Horgidae 14 13.59% 10.00%
Darkle's Bane 14 13.59% 10.00%
Devil's Minion 5 4.85% 3.57%
RC Toadstool 4 3.88% 2.86%
RC Death Cap 1 0.97% 0.71%
none 37 n/a 26.43%

Full night cycle: 65 minutes, 50 shrooms
Booomslang's Toadstool 20 40.00% 31.25%
Caledons Ordinalis 16 32.00% 25.00%
Morte Velox 7 14.00% 10.94%
Nicholas Shroom 5 10.00% 7.81%
Fungus Davanicus 1 2.00% 1.56%
Bellambia 1 2.00% 1.56%
none 14 n/a 21.88%

Full day cycle: 175 minutes, 125 shrooms
Shrooms Caledonus 72 57.60% 41.14%
Xenobiologus Horgidae 26 20.80% 14.86%
Darkle's Bane 13 10.40% 7.43%
Devil's Minion 9 7.20% 5.14%
RC Toadstool 4 3.20% 2.29%
RC Death Cap 1 0.80% 0.57%
none 50 n/a 28.57%

Random sightings
2 Elf Ears about 9:06pm , Absinthe
Death Cap for Cutie, 9:55p, Laudanum


Galactic Baroque shroon notes 2
2008-05-27 04:31:31
The night brought much excitement as a new patch with 4 new species was discovered in Lovelace.

partial day cycle count:

Byronium camelopardis 18
Byronium leopardis 13
Byronium dalmatia 5
Byronium tigris 0

full night cycle count:

Byronium camelopardis 17
Byronium leopardis 15
Byronium dalmatia 17
Byronium tigris 1 (12:04 am)

Update in Mycology.

Here I have the privilege of publishing some reports from the field of mycology, passed along to me by Tanarian Davies, a mycophile of the first order.

First, a lovely array of the mushrooms from the Caledon Botanical Society:

Photographic collection courtesy Dame Lapin Paris

"As beautiful and terrible as an army arrayed for battle." -- Ed.

I will again pass the request for further information, data, supposition, intrigue, or startling conclusions. Please send them via notecard, and I shall endeavour to disseminate them.


Mycological note, for your commentary and feedback
Tanarian Davies, 2008-05-23 16:19:53

A proposal for the classification of mushrooms by shape and structure:

Type 1: Bulbous, near-round cap; has annulus; short stem

• Bellambia
• Darkle's
• Cutie (stretched)
• Dusty
• Theobroma
• Xeno

Type 2: Concave, peaked cap; no annulus; short stem

• Bardhaven's
• Boomslang's
• Devil's
• Amongus
• Royal Toadstool
• Story Morel (stretched)
• Tasty Nonesuch (stretched)

Type 3: Bell-shaped cap; no annulus; moderate stem

• Ordinalus
• Monk
• Morte
• Royal Deathcap

Type 4: "Classic" flattened-dome cap; no annulus; long stem

• Glowgill (stretched)
• Davanicus
• Nicholas
• Shroomus
• Tears
• Truffle (stretched)

Audrey Fotherington identifies another ring
Tanarian Davies, 2008-05-24 09:15:11

Caledon Downs: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Downs/167/115/44
(it's right across from that new Hatpins shop and next to the tracks)


Notes on picking up extremely rare species
Bryndal Ellison, 2008-05-25 19:11:28

Bellambia - picked up 4:08 pm SLT, Eyre (Local Night)
Elf Ear - picked up 11:23 am SLT, Absinthe (Day)
DeathCap for Cutie - picked up approx 2:14 pm SLT, Laudanum (Day)



Mycological observerations, 25 May
Tanarian Davies, 2008-05-25

Laudanum: Cutie @ 09:26, 10:19, 19:20, 20:30
Absinthe: Elf Ears @ 01:29, 10:28, 19:00, 19:51

(all Winterfell times SLT only)
----------------------------------
Glengarry: Deathcap @ 11:49 local/17:56 SLT, 2:25?local/18:33 STL (approx)
RCT 14:50 lcl/18:42 SLT
Bellambia 03:04 lcl/00:13 SLT (26th)
Eyre: RCT 09:06 lcl/21:14 SLT



Latest mushroom info/rumors
Tanarian Davies, 2008-05-26

Guvnah Shang wandered into Glengarry while I was holding watch yesterday, and stirred up a whole lot of Xenos, but also =confirmed= as far as he was going to that 24 IS the number of currently available mushrooms.

He implied that at one of the three other previously-referenced locations -- Lovelace, Brythony, Saint Kitt Islands - would be getting mushrooms soon, but would not confirm which ONE. He said I was "partially right".

I also got the impression we're getting much closer to cooking time.

Tanarian
Yes, I'm still a mushroom




Field Guide v.1.0
Otenth Paderborn, 2008-05-26 00:40:25
Adapted from http://www.caledonwiki.com/index.php?title=Shrooms
25 May 2008

Known locations (courtesy of Miss Tanarian Davies)

• Laudanum 145,97
• Absinthe 114,131
• Winterfell 61.227
• Tanglewood 130,119
• Moors 106,44
• Kittiwickshire 113,191
• Glengarry 168,163
• Eyre 172,96
• Downs 166,114
• Brigadoon 115,141

BardHaven's Bane (Advocatus diaboli)
Location - Absinthe (South), Laudanum (South), Winterfell (North)
Frequency - Uncommon
Type: Thaumalate Cap: Glowing; violet-pink with lighter pink spots Upper stem: Pink with black spots Lower stem: Pink

Bellambia
Location - Eyre (Central)[1], Glengarry (Central)
Frequency - Rare
Type: Oblate Cap: Vivid red with large white spots and small black dots Upper stem: Yellow and brown tiger pattern Lower stem: Yellow

Bilious Glowgill
Location - Absinthe (South), Laudanum (South), Winterfell (North)
Frequency - Common
Type: Patellate (extremely vertical extended) Cap: Glowing; pale green with brown spots, darker green gills Upper stem: Dark blue annulus, fading to medium blue then back to dark blue Lower stem: Green band fading into grey

Boomslang's Toadstool
Location - Brigadoon (Central), Downs (Central), Eyre (Central, night only), Glengarry (Central), Kittiwickshire (North), Tanglewood (Central), Victoria City (Central)
Frequency - Common
Type: Thaumalate Cap: Medium brown Upper stem: Dark brown Lower stem: White

Caledon Ordinalus
Location - Brigadoon (Central), Downs (Central), Eyre (Central, night only), Glengarry (Central), Kittiwickshire (North), Tanglewood (Central), Victoria City (Central)
Frequency - Common
Type: Campanulate Cap: Cream with yellow-brown splodges Upper stem: Light green Lower stem: Grey

Darkle's Bane
Location - Downs (Central), Eyre (Central), Glengarry (Central), Tanglewood (Central)
Frequency - Uncommon
Type: Oblate Cap: Deep red with black, pink and white spots Upper stem: Pink with white mottling Lower stem: White

Death Cap for Cutie
Location - Laudanum (South)[1]
Frequency - Extremely rare
Type: Oblate (extremely radially extended) Cap: Glowing; pink with dark pink and white spots Upper stem: Pink with dark pink mottling Lower stem: Black

Devil's Minion
Location - Downs (Central), Eyre (Central), Victoria City (Central)
Frequency - Uncommon
Type: Thaumalate Cap: Orange with two "eye"-like black spots Upper stem: Brown Lower stem: White

Dusty Stinker (Proditoris crepusculis)
Location - Absinthe (South), Laudanum (South)
Frequency - Common
Type: Oblate Cap: Glowing; blue-grey with sky-blue and pale yellow spots Upper stem: Yellow with blue veins Lower stem: Pale blue

Elf Ear
Location - Absinthe (Central) [1],
Frequency - Extremely rare
Type: Thaumalate (vertically extended) Cap: Glowing; white with black and grey spots Upper stem: White with black spots fading into green Lower stem: Greenish-black

Fungus Amongus
Location - Absinthe (South), Laudanum (South), Moors (Central, night)
Frequency - Common
Type: Thaumalate Cap: Glowing; yellow with green-black spots and a tan point Upper stem: Chartreuse with black spots Lower stem: Greenish-black

Fungus Davanicus
Location - Eyre (Central)
Frequency - Rare
Type: Patellate Cap: Green with darker green spots Upper stem: Bright red Lower stem: Cream

Malevolent Monk
Location - Eyre (Central, night), Winterfell (Central)
Frequency - Rare
Type: Campanulate Cap: Glowing; dark red with pink spots, lighter red band around cap Upper stem: Pink Lower stem: Light green, mottled

Morte Velox
Location - Downs (Central), Eyre (Central, night), Glengarry (Central, night), Tanglewood (Central)
Frequency - Uncommon
Type: Campanulate Cap: Coral-orange with green and grey spots Upper stem: Tan Lower stem: Grey, mottled

Nicholas Shroom
Location - Eyre (Central), Glengarry (Central, night), Tanglewood (Central)
Frequency - Uncommon
Type: Patellate Cap: Grey with green and dark grey spots Upper stem: Dull red Lower stem: White

Royal Caledon Deathcap
Location - Eyre (Central), Glengarry (Central)
Frequency - Rare
Type: Campanulate Cap: Black with vivid red spots Upper stem: Paler red Lower stem: Dark grey, mottled

Royal Caledon Toadstool
Location - Eyre (Central), Glengarry (Central)
Frequency - Sporadic
Type: Thaumalate Cap: Bright red with two "eye"-like black spots Upper stem: Brown Lower stem: White

Shroomus Caledonus
Location - Brigadoon (Central), Downs (Central), Eyre (Central), Glengarry (Central), Kittiwickshire (North), Tanglewood (Central), Victoria City (Central)
Frequency - Common
Type: Patellate Cap: Grey-green Upper stem: Tan Lower stem: White

Story Morel
Location - Absinthe (South), Laudanum (South), Moors (Central, night)
Frequency - Sporadic
Type: Campanulate Cap: Glowing; yellow with a green band, olive mottling and olive & blue spots Upper stem: Darker yellow-green with continuation of mottling Lower stem: Screaming purple

Tasty Nonesuch (Boletus edulis incomparabilis)
Location - Absinthe (South), Laudanum (South), Moors (Central, night), Winterfell (North)
Frequency - Common
Type: Campanulate Cap: Glowing; multicoloured (green-black top, red/coral/yellow/green, blue/purple edge) Upper stem: Green/blue-violet Lower stem: Blue-violet

Tremella Theobroma (the Common Chocolate Shake)
Location - Winterfell (North)
Frequency - Uncommon
Type: Oblate Cap: Glowing, light cocoa-brown with lighter and darker spots Upper stem: Green, black spots Lower stem: Black

Winterfell Tears
Location - Laudanum (South), Moors (Central, night)
Frequency - Uncommon
Type: Patellate Cap: Glowing; vivid purple with blue-violet and pink spots Upper stem: Hot pink with blue-violet veining Lower stem: Electric blue fading to pink

Winterfell Truffle
Location - Winterfell (North)
Frequency - Uncommon
Type: Patellate (extremely radially extended) Cap: Glowing; mottled brown with darker spots Upper stem: Green Lower stem: Blue-grey

Xenobiologus Horgidae
Location - Brigadoon (Central), Downs (Central), Eyre (Central), Glengarry (Central), Kittiwickshire (North), Tanglewood (Central), Victoria City (Central)
Frequency - Common
Type: Oblate Cap: Yellow-green with yellow spots Upper stem: Light blue veined with yellow Lower stem: White

In Search of ... Fungus!

On behalf of myself and Mr JJ Drinkwater, I would like to announce the collaboration of the Caledon Library and the Royal Society for the Advancement of Knowledge in the Natural Sciences in the matter of cataloguing our surroundings.

A recent article reported by the BBC, "Rare lichen find a European first" shows that the Real World still holds some secrets of nature waiting to be discovered. Our Second World is no exception, as new reports of Caledonian flora and fauna have been surfacing in recent days.

Please join us in our efforts; consider yourselves deputised to the office of Field Scientist, ready to relay your observations from the wild.

If you come across any novel plant or animal life in the Independent State of Caledon, or in the surrounding regions of Winterfell, Brythony, or Lovelace, please collect the following data:

• location
• time and time-of-day (e.g., dusk, mid-day, &c)
• description of surroundings
• effects on self or others (including physiologic effects of ingestion)

as well as some visual representation of your find (tintype, daguerreotype, cinematograph, Kirlian photogram, transmission electron photomicrograph, or what-have-you).

Please forward your findings to the Royal Society, via note-card addressed to yours truly. Discoveries will be posted (with due credit to the submitter) on the ætheric edition of the Proceedings of The Royal Society (http://ProcRoyalSoc.blogspot.com).
Please see the Caledon wiki for a collection of descriptions: http://www.caledonwiki.com/index.php?title=Shrooms .

Mr Drinkwater and I, and our learned colleagues, are greatly excited about this new era of promotion of the natural sciences – and equally excited to share the thrill of discovery with every Caledonian. Just think of it: might yours be the next discovery to make headlines?

With best wishes in your endeavours,
I remain,
Yours sincerely,

Kate Nicholas, FRS