Chapter 17, Problem 17.8CQ

The Tunguska event. On June 30, 1908, a meteor burned up and exploded in the atmosphere above the Tunguska River valley in Siberia. It knocked down trees over thousands of square kilometers and started a forest fire, but produced no crater and apparently caused no human casualties. A witness sitting on his doorstep outside the zone of falling trees recalled events in the following sequence. He saw a moving light in the sky, brighter than the Sun and descending at a low angle to the horizon. He felt his face become warm. He felt the ground shake. An invisible agent picked him up and immediately dropped him about a meter from where he had been seated. He heard a very loud protracted rumbling. Suggest an explanation for these observations and for the order in which they happened.