Posted on 07/22/2014 4:57:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The craters, believed to be formed by an underground explosion, are now filled with snow and ice. Reindeer herders in Russia's Far North have discovered yet another mysterious giant hole about 30 kilometers away from a similar one found days earlier.
Located in the permafrost of the subarctic Siberian region of Yamal, which means "end of the earth" in the local Nenets language, both craters appear to have been formed in recent years and have icy lakes at their bases.
Scientists who examined the first hole theorized that it could have been created when a mixture of water, salt and gas exploded underground, the Siberian Times news site reported.
The area, which has one of Russia's richest deposits of natural gas, was covered by sea about 10,000 years ago, and vast salt deposits were left behind.
"Global warming, causing an alarming melt in the ice under the soil, released gas causing an effect like the popping of a Champagne cork," the news report said, citing an expert at the Subarctic Scientific Research Center.
The first hole is estimated to be about 50 meters wide and 70 meters deep, with water from melting permafrost cascading down its sides into the icy deposit below.
The second hole is "exactly" like the first one, but "much smaller," local lawmaker Mikhail Lapsui told the Interfax-Ural news agency. "Inside the crater itself, snow can be seen."
Yes - I hadn’t thought about that.
I guess I’m just stuck on the idea that commercial quantities of gas are almost always found in close proximity to petroleum.
Do a web search on "coalbed methane".
"Scientists who (All having an eerie blue glow to their eyes)examined the first hole theorized that it could have been created when a mixture of water, salt and gas exploded underground, the Siberian Times news site reported."
isn’t that the hole where the lemmings go :)
Right, I know coal mines blow up.
But I didn’t know that surface tundra could blow up.
After all those UFO sightings were blamed on "swamp gas"?
Actually, we don't know that it did, it is one possibility.
BTW, coal seams were drilled in the 90s for the methane (natural gas) present in them, and that may still be going on.
Thanks - I didn’t know that coal seams were a commercially viable source for gas.
I assumed they just flared the gas off to prevent mine explosions.
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