Daniele Ceccato, Maria-Crista Buoso, Mario De Poli, Laura Tositti, L. Forlani, Marcella Mingozzi, S. Sandrini, D. Baldacci, G. Longo, "Elemental Depth Profiles of Peat Columns from Tunguska Region", 8th European Conference on Accelerators in Applied Research and Technology ECAART-8, September 20-24, 2004 Paris, France

ABTRACT: On June 30th 1908 the Tunguska area of the Siberian taiga was hit by the catastrophic impact of the so called Tunguska Cosmic Body (TCB) whose nature has not been clarified yet. The present study is aimed to find out traces of the effects produced as well as remnants of the fallen cosmic body using the well known behaviour of sphagnum peat bogs as environmental archives and applying PIXE technique. Moreover, the obtained data are va luable to identify atmospheric composition variations in Siberia during the last century. Sampled peat columns were divided into slices and analysed by means of PIXE technique at the INFN-National Laboratories of Legnaro. A precise dating was performed using excess 210Pb geochronology and pollen/charcoal counting. Tests of a м-PIXE search for TCB micro-remnants are undergoing. The elemental composition profile of the peat layers is presented and the results discussed.