ISOTOPE ANOMALIES OF CARBON, HYDROGEN AND NITROGEN IN PEAT FROM THE AREA OF THE TUNGUSKA COSMIC BODY EXPLOSION (1908)

Feat profiles from the area of the Tunguska explosion epicentre indica te significant carbon and hydrogen isotopic effects which are clearly associated with the zone of the 1908 ''catastrophe'', and which cannot be attributed to any known terrestrial processes. We explain them wit h the presence of extraterrestrial matter similar to carbonaceous chon drites or, more probably, to cometary matter. Initial data on nitrogen content and its isotope composition are consistent with the assumptio n of acid rainfall following the passage and explosion of the Tunguska cosmic body, as is known to have occurred during the Cretaceous-Terti ary boundary.