On 30 June 1908, an explosion occurs over the Tunguska region of Russia. (Commonly referred to as “the Tunguska Event”).
Claims to fame
This incident is Case 13 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 95 of the books covered by that article.
Isaac Koi’s “ICES” Rating for this sighting = 5,880 (out of a potential score of 14*14*14*14 i.e. 38,416)
(1) “Impact” Rating of 14 (out of a potential score of 14), because it is Case 13 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article.
(2) “Credibility” Rating of 14 (out of a potential score of 14) because something clearly happened and it has been reported accurately. The debate regarding this incident has centered on whether there is a natural explanation for the event, i.e. a debate regarding its Strangeness Rating (below).
(2) “Expert” Rating of 6 (out of a potential score of 14). It is given this slightly below average rating because (at the time of writing) it has not been included in any of the short lists of the best cases produced by various UFO researchers that have been compiled by Isaac Koi (see the “Best UFO Cases" article at PART 3: Existing lists by various individuals), and is it is occasionally mentioned by some UFO researchers as an example of an event having a mundane explanation..
(4)“Strangeness” Rating of 5 (out of a potential score of 14). The sighting has a relatively low strangeness rating since several researchers have put forward plausible evidence that the event had a mundane explanation (i.e. the explosion of an asteroid or comet) rather than requiring a exotic theory to explain the event.
Sections below:
Photo of damage caused by the Tunguska event:
Web Resources
Wikipedi article at : Tunguska event (1908)
This incident is discussed on the AboveTopSecret.com (“ATS”) internet discussion forums in Thread 314276.
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Book References
For discussion of the Tunguska Event see the following:
Year |
Discussion by:
|
No. of Pages |
Aczel, Amir in his “Probability 1” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 115-116 (in Chapter 6) of the Little Brown hardback edition. |
2 |
|
Allen, Tom in his “The Quest: A Report on Extraterrestrial life " (1965) at pages 14-17 (in Chapter 1) of the Chilton hardback edition. |
4 |
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Angelo, Joseph A in his “The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia: Man’s Search for Life in Outer Space” (1985) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 205 (in the entry entitled “Tunguska event”) of the revised 1991 Fact on File hardback edition. |
1 |
|
Asimov, Isaac in “The Fire Came By” (1976) (by John Baxter and Thomas Aktins) at pages 15-18 (in the Introduction, entitled “Bang!”) of the Futura paperback edition. |
4 |
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Baker, Robert in the Roush Hearing (the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects" on 1968.0729) at page 132 of the transcript of the Ninetieth Congress, Second Session, Number 7. Edited and annotated transcript presented by Fuller, John in his “Aliens in the Skies” (1969), with the relevant extract appearing at page 158 (in Chapter 6) of the Putnam hardback edition. Complete transcript available free online at the following links: |
1 |
|
Ball, Brian in his “A Young Person’s Guide to UFOs” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 40-42 (in Chapter 4) of the Dragon paperback edition. |
3 |
|
Barclay, David in his “Aliens: The Final Answer?” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 160-161 (in Chapter 11) of the Blandford softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Baxter, John and Aktins, Thomas in their “The Fire Came By” (1976) generally, particularly at pages 11-13 (in the Preface), 21-148 (Chapters 1-11 generally) of the Futura paperback edition. |
131 |
|
Beaty, David in his “Strange Encounters : Mysteries of the Air” (1982) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 145 (in Chapter 10) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
1 |
|
Bergier, Jacques in his “Extraterrestrial Visitations From Prehistoric Times to the Present” (1970) at pages 159-165 (in Chapter 10) of the Signet paperback edition, at pages 179-186 of the Futura paperback edition (published under the title “Mysteries of the Earth”). |
7 |
|
Berlitz, Charles and Moore, Bill in their “The Roswell Incident“ (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 151-152 (in Chapter 9) of the Granada hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Granada paperback edition). |
2 |
|
Berlitz, Charles in his “The Bermuda Triangle” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 106-107 (in Chapter 6) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
2 |
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Berlitz, Charles in his “Without a Trace” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 145-146 (in Chapter 8) of the Souvenir Press hardback edition, at page180-181 of the Granada paperback edition. |
2 |
|
Berlitz, Charles in his “World of Strange Phenomena” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 40-41 of the Wynwood hardback edition. |
2 |
|
Birnes, William in his “The UFO Magazine UFO Encyclopedia” (2004) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 250 (in an entry entitled “Podkamennaya Tunguska River”), 308 (in an entry entitled “Tunguska, Siberia”) of the Pocket Books softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Bizony, Piers in his “The Exploration of Mars: Searching for the Cosmic Origins of Life” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 146-147 (in Chapter 7) of the Aurum softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Blum, Ralph and Blum, Judy in their “Beyond Earth: Man’s Contact with UFOs” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 61 (in Chapter 6) of the Bantam paperback edition (with the same page numbering in the Corgi paperback edition). |
1 |
|
Blundell, Nigel and Boar, Roger in “The World’s Greatest Alien Abduction Mysteries” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 319-324 (in the chapter entitled “Encounters of the Historical Kind”) of the Chancellor Press softcover edition. |
6 |
|
Blundell, Nigel and Boar, Roger in their “The World’s Greatest UFO Mysteries” (1986) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 78-82 (in the chapter entitled “Encounters of the Historical Kind”) of the Octopus hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Hamlyn softcover edition). |
5 |
|
Brookesmith, Peter in his “UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalogue” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 24-25 (in Chapter 2) of the BCA hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Blitz hardback edition, and in the Barnes & Noble hardback edition published under the title “UFO: The Complete Sightings”). |
2 |
|
Chapman, Robert in his “UFO : Flying Saucers Over Britain?” (1969) (also published as “Unidentified Flying Objects”) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 145-147 (in Chapter 11) of the Mayflower paperback edition. |
3 |
|
Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Volume 2:L-Z at page 620 (forming part of an entry entitled “Men In Black”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. |
1 |
|
Clarke, Arthur C in “Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World” (1980) (by Welfare, Simon and Fairley, John) at pages 243-245 (in Chapter 9) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
3 |
|
Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 1188-1190 (in Section 6, Chapter 7 “Atmospheric Electricity and Plasma Interpretations of UFOs”, by Martin D Altschuler) of the uncorrected version submitted to the Air Force (with the same page numbering in the 3 volume paperbound edition distributed by the National Technical Information Service, US Department of Commerce) at pages 746-747 of the Vision hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Bantam paperback edition). The first of these editions has the same page numbering as the edition available free online at the following links: |
3 |
|
Cook, Nick in his “The Hunt for Zero Point” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 259-260 (in Chapter 25) of the Century hardback edition. |
2 |
|
Darling, David in his “The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 429-430 (in the entry entitled “Tunguska Phenomenon”) of the Three Rivers softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Darling, David in his online encyclopedia, “The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy and Spaceflight” (2003) in the entry entitled “Tunguska Phenomenon”. The relevant entry is available online at: |
1 |
|
Davenport, Marc in his “Visitors from Time” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 91 (in Chapter 7) of the 1994 revised Greenleaf softcover edition. |
1 |
|
Drake, W Raymond in his “Gods and Spacemen Throughout History” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 227 (in Chapter 25) of the Sphere paperback edition. |
1 |
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Fairley, John and Welfare, Simon in their “Arthur C Clarke’s Chronicles of the Strange and Mysterious” (1987) at pages 73, 76-77 (in Chapter 4) of the Guild Publishing hardback edition. |
3 |
|
Flammonde, Paris in his “Ufo Exist!” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 121-122 (in Chapter 7) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition. |
2 |
|
Flindt, Max H and Binder, Otto in their “Mankind – Child of the Stars” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 47-48 (in Chapter 2) of the Fawcett paperback edition. |
2 |
|
Ford, Roger in “UFOs: The Final Answer?” (1993) (edited by David Barclay and Therese Marie Barclay) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 99-103 (in Chapter 5) of the Blandford softcover edition. |
5 |
|
Furneaux, Rupert in his “The Tungus Event” (1977) generally, particularly at pages 9-125 of the Panther paperback edition. |
117 |
|
Garrett, Richard in his “Aliens From Outer Space” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 31-33 (in Chapter 2) of the Piccolo paperback edition. |
3 |
|
Goldberg, Bruce in his “Time Travelers from our Future: An explanation of alien abduction” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 109-111 (in Chapter 7) of the Llewellyn softcover edition. |
|
|
Guieu, Jimmy in his “Flying Saucers Come From Another World” (1956) (edited by Ronald Story) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 200-205 (in Chapter 9) of the Hutchinson hardback edition. |
6 |
|
Hall, Michael David in his “UFOs : A Century of Sightings” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 8-9 (in Chapter 1) of the Galde Press softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Hancock, Graham in his “The Mars Mystery” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 42-43 (in Chapter 4), 177-179 (in Chapter 18) of the Crown hardback edition. |
5 |
|
Hobana, Ion and Weverbergh, Julien in their “UFO's from behind the iron curtain” (1974) at pages 10-30 (Chapter 1 generally) of the Corgi paperback edition. |
21 |
|
Johnson, Frank in his “The Janos People” (1980) at page 160 (in Chapter 13) of the Neville Spearman hardback edition. |
1 |
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Kanon, Gregory M in his “The Great UFO Hoax” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 41-44 (in Chapter 4) of the Galde Press softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Kolosimo, Peter in his “Not of this World” (1969) at page 18 (in Chapter 1) of the Sphere paperback edition. |
1 |
|
1927 |
Kulik, K A in “The Problem of the Impact Area of the Tunguska Meteorite of 1908”, Doklady Akad SSSR (A), No. 23 (1927) 399-402. English translation included by Baxter, John and Aktins, Thomas in their “The Fire Came By” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 154-157 (Appendix B generally) of the Futura paperback edition. |
4 |
Landsburg, Alan in his “In Search of Extraterrestrials” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 107-108 (in Chapter 8) of the Corgi paperback edition. |
2 |
|
Lorenzen, Coral and Lorenzen, Jim in “UFOs: The Whole Story” (1969) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 17 (in Chapter 1) of the Signet paperback edition. |
1 |
|
Lunan, Duncan in his “Man and the Stars” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 306-308 (in Chapter 14) of the Souvenir Press hardback edition, at pages 377-380 of the Corgi paperback edition. |
3 |
|
Macvey, John W in his “Interstellar Travel” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 215-229 (in Chapter 14) of the Avon paperback edition. |
15 |
|
Marrs, Jim in his “PSI Spies: The True Story of America’s Psychic Warfare Program” (2007) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 274-275 (in Chapter 9) of the New Page Books softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Menzel, Donald and Taves, Ernest in “The UFO Enigma“ (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 144 (in Chapter 11) of the Doubleday hardback edition. |
1 |
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Moore, Patrick in his “Can you speak Venusian?” (1972) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 109-111 (in Chapter 13) of the Star Books paperback edition. |
3 |
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Nixon, Neil in his “Pocket Essentials : UFOs” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 32-33 (in Chapter 2) of the Pocket Essentials softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Oberg, James in “UFOs and Outer Space Mysteries” (1982) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 132-145 of the Donning paperback edition (Chapter 7 generally). |
14 |
|
Oberg, James in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) edited by Ronald Story (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 371-373 of the NEL hardback edition in an entry entitled “Tunguska (Russia) event”. |
3 |
|
Ortzen, Len in his “Strange Stories of UFOs” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 147-148 (in Chapter 18) of the Coronet paperback edition. |
2 |
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Randle, Kevin in his “A history of UFO crashes” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 176-178 (in Appendix A, “The UFO Crash Data Base”) of the Avon paperback edition. |
3 |
|
Randle, Kevin in his “The UFO Casebook” (1989) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 184-196 of the Warner Books paperback edition (entry entitled “April 1981: Van Allen on the Tunguska Explosion”). |
13 |
|
Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “Looking for the Aliens” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 159-161 (in Chapter 18) of the Blandford softcover edition. |
3 |
|
Randles, Jenny in her “The Complete Book of Aliens and Abductions” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) a page 83 (in Part 2) of the Piatkus hardback edition. |
1 |
|
Randles, Jenny in her “The Little Giant Encyclopedia of UFOs” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 25 (in Part 1, “A UFO Timeline”), 323 (in Part 3, “UFOs Worldwide”) of the Sterling softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Randles, Jenny in her “The Unexplained: Great Mysteries of the 20th Century” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 14-16 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “1900-1909”) of the Index hardback edition. |
3 |
|
Randles, Jenny in her “UFO Retrievals” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 18-25 (in Chapter 1) of the Blandford softback edition. |
8 |
|
Ridpath, Ian in his “Messages from the Stars” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 214-215 (in Chapter 13) of the Fontana paperback edition. |
2 |
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Ritchie, David in his “UFO : The Definitive Guide” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 210 (in an entry entitled “Tunguska event”) of the MJF hardback edition. |
1 |
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Rux, Bruce in his “Architects of the Underworld” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 225-226, 227 (in Chapter 7) of the Frog softcover edition. |
3 |
|
Rux, Bruce in his “Hollywood Vs. the Aliens” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 15-16 (in the Introduction) of the Frog softcover edition. |
2 |
|
Sachs, Margaret and Jahn, Ernest in their “Celestial Passengers – UFOs & Space Travel” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 32-37 (Chapter 3 generally) of the Penguin paperback edition. |
6 |
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Sachs, Margaret in “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 326-327 (in an entry entitled “Tunguska Region, Russia”), also included in a list entitled “Chronological list of UFO sightings” at page vii of the Corgi softback edition. |
2 |
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Sagan, Carl in his “Cosmos“ (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 92-97 (in Chapter 4) of the Abacus softcover edition. |
6 |
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Sagan, Carl in his “Pale Blue Dot” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 313 (in Chapter 18) of the Random House softcover edition. |
1 |
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Shuttlewood, Arthur in his “UFO Magic in Motion” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 173-176 (in Chapter 9) of the Sphere paperback edition. |
4 |
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Smith, Marcia S in her “The UFO Enigma: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, UG 633, 76-52 SP” (1976) at pages 91-92 (in Chapter 5) of the Congressional Research Service stapled edition. |
2 |
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Spencer, John in his “UFOs: The Definitive Casebook” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 128-129 (in the unnumbered section entitled “The East”, in the chapter entitled “Database”) of the Hamlyn hardback edition. |
2 |
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Spencer, John in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 299 (in an entry entitled “Tunguska Meteorite”) of the Guild hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Avon softcover edition) at page 352 of the Headline paperback edition. |
1 |
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Stemman, Roy in his “Mysteries of the Universe: Great Mysteries” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 238-241 (in Chapter 13) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
4 |
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Stevens, Wendelle and Roberts, August in their “UFO Photographs: Around The World: Vol. 1” (1986) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 13 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “UFOs Photographed”), 217 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Appendix 1 : Catalogue of UFO Photographic Reports”) of the UFO Photo Archives hardback edition. |
1 |
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Stilley, Frank in his “The Search” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 144-145 (in Chapter 13) of the Putnam hardback edition. |
2 |
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Stoneley, Jack and A T Lawton in their “CETI: Communication with Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 151 (in Chapter 19) of the Star Books paperback edition. |
1 |
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Stoneley, Jack and A T Lawton in their “Is Anyone Out There?” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 187-188 (in Chapter 10) of the Star Books paperback edition. |
2 |
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Story, Ronald in his “Guardians of the Universe?” (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 95-100 (in Chapter 10 generally) of the New English Library paperback edition. |
6 |
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Sullivan, Walter in his “We Are Not Alone” (1964) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 120 (in Chapter 10) of the Signet paperback revised editions. |
1 |
|
1927 |
Suslov, I M in “In Search of the Great Meteorite of 1908”, Mriovedenie, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1927) 13-18. English translation included by Baxter, John and Aktins, Thomas in their “The Fire Came By” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 151-153 (Appendix A generally) of the Futura paperback edition. |
3 |
Thomas, Paul in his “Flying Saucers Through The Ages” (1973) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 14 (in Chapter 1) of the Tandem paperback edition. |
1 |
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Time-Life (Editors of) in “The UFO phenomenon: Mysteries of the Unknown” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 23-24 (in Chapter 1) of the Time-Life Book hardback edition. |
2 |
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Trench, Brinsley Le Poer in his “Operation Earth” (1969) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 29 (in Chapter 4) of the Tandem paperback edition. |
1 |
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Vallee, Jacques and Vallee, Janine in their “Challenge to Science – The UFO Enigma” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 116-117 (in Chapter 5) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition, at pages 99-100 of the Tandem paperback edition. |
2 |
|
Vallee, Jacques in his “Anatomy of a Phenomenon” (1965) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 18-20 (in Chapter 1) of the Henry Regnery hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Tandem paperback edition), pages 20-22 of the Ballantine Books paperback edition, pages 42-44 of the 1966 revised and enlarged Ace Star paperback edition. |
3 |
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Vallee, Jacques in his “Passport to Magonia” (1970) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 187 (in the Appendix entitled “A Century of UFO Landings (1868-1968)”) of the Regnery hardback edition, with the relevant Appendix omitted from the Tandem paperback edition. |
1 |
|
Vallee, Jacques in his “UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union: A Cosmic Samizdat” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 62-73 (Chapter 6 generally) and 101-103 (in Chapter 9) of the Ballantine Books hardback edition. |
15 |
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Von Daniken, Erich in his “Chariots of the Gods?” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 162-165 (in Chapter 10) of the World Books hardback edition, at pages 122-125 of the Bantam paperback editions. |
4 |
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Webb, Stephen in his “Where is Everybody?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 34 (in Chapter 3) of the Copernicus hardback edition. |
1 |
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Welfare, Simon and Fairley, John in their “Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World” (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 222-243 (in Chapter 9 generally) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
22 |
|
White, Michael in his “Life Out There” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 86-87 (in Chapter 4) of the Little, Brown & Co hardback edition. |
2 |
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Wilkins, Harold in his “Flying Saucers on the Moon” (1954) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 217 (in Chapter 9) of the Peter Owen hardback edition, at page 210 of the Ace paperback edition published under the title “Flying Saucers on the Attack”. |
1 |
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Zarkon in his “The Zarkon Principle” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 58-59 (in Chapter 8) of the Everest paperback edition. |
2 |
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Zigel, F Yu in Tom Allen’s “The Quest: A Report on Extraterrestrial life" (1965) at pages 253-263 (in Appendix A generally) of the Chilton hardback edition. The relevant appendix is a translation of an article by Zigel, F Yu in “Zaniye-Sila” (Knowledge is Strength), No. 12, Moscow, December 1961, pages 24-27). |
11 |
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