The holes, on Russia’s Yamal Pensinsula, captured attention after one was first spotted by an aircraft pilot in July, who took this pic:
The world went mad. Suspected causes ranged from meteorites to underground explosions to extra-terrestrial.
Posted on 11/15/2014 5:18:24 PM PST by cripplecreek
Scientists have finally descended into one of the three enormous holes that mysteriously opened up in Siberia several months ago.
The holes, on Russia’s Yamal Pensinsula, captured attention after one was first spotted by an aircraft pilot in July, who took this pic:
The world went mad. Suspected causes ranged from meteorites to underground explosions to extra-terrestrial.
Now a team from the Russian Centre of Arctic Exploration has climbed down to the bottom of the largest hole, about 16m, to stand on a frozen lake which itself is about another 10.5m deep.
The team had to brave winter temperatures of -11C, as the crater was a mudbath in summer with water pouring into it from the ground above.
Vladimir Pushkarev, director of the Russian Centre of Arctic Exploration, took a few amazing snaps of the expedition.
The team is following a theory that the holes might have been caused by underground gas explosions.
“We took all the probes we planned, and made measurements,” Pushkarev told The Siberian Times.
“Now scientists need time to process all the data and only then can they draw conclusions.”
The centre believes it’s possible the holes didn’t “open up” in July and perhaps simply hadn’t been noticed before.
“We plan to explore the surrounding area, comparing images from space, and even those taken in the 1980s, to understand if there are – or were – some similar objects,” Pushkarev said.
One unusual thing the team noticed was the largest hole is located on the intersection of two tectonic faults.
While the peninsula itself is relatively quiet in a seismological sense, the temperature beneath the hole was “higher than usual”.
Interesting Siberian holes.
“Interesting Siberian holes.”
I dated a girl from Siberia for a while.
Hmm, what’s cookin in that hole? Hold my beer while I lean over and take a peek. Don’t let go of that rope!
Many pictures here.
They look like sink holes but that doesn’t explain the piles of debris around the rims.
16 meters? That’s only about 50 feet. Kind of a let-down.
Hey, I made a joke.
Beans.
How many does it take to fill the Albert Hall?
almost as if something crashed there or exploded from below?
Good observation: “the piles of debris around the rim.”
I understand that if you put a microphone down the hole, you can hear the anguished voices of all the people trapped in Hell. Russian scientists recorded it.
Was she interesting?
The Journey To The Center of The Earth — it’s not quite as far as some people thought.
I’m wondering if it might not be a combination of sink hole and gas release.
As the hole collapsed gas was released like a bubble bursting tossing soil aside.
Checking out Google earth. Looks like the Yamal Pensinsula is already covered with sink holes.
Russian A hole: 
The team is following a theory that the holes might have been caused by underground gas explosions... One unusual thing the team noticed was the largest hole is located on the intersection of two tectonic faults.
Bet these holes are a lot older than we think.
Here is one pretty critical detail that was not mentioned -
This last summer a expedition from the Scientific Center of Arctic Studies found methane concentrations of 9.6% at the bottom of the crater – 50,000 times the atmospheric average.
The possibility that methane released by melting permafrost produced the crater had been a favored hypothesis from its discovery in mid-July.
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