An Enormous Crater Randomly Appeared in Remote Siberia and the World Is Freaking Out

Global Post ^ | July 17, 2014 | Timothy McGrath

[nickcarraway]

It's gotta be either a UFO or a giant worm, right?

It's hard to tell from this perspective — ya know, while on the internet — but that's a freakin' gigantic hole in the ground.

It's about 260 feet wide, nobody knows how deep, and it seems to have appeared out of nowhere in a remote corner of northern Siberia called Yamal, which means, appropriately, "the end of the world."

There are plenty of theories already. Could be a UFO crash site, some say. Others, a meteorite.

A researcher with the Sub-Arctic Scientific Research Centre thinks it might have been caused by a release of subterranean gas trapped for 10,000 years or so. The gas, according to the theory, had been trapped since the area was a sea, and as climate change melted the permafrost, that pressurized gas might have forced its way out of the ground like a corked champagne bottle.

Incidentally, the Yamal Peninsula is one of Russia's richest regions for the production of oil and gas, and the hole appeared 19 miles from Bovanenkovo, a major gas field. So it could have something to do with that...

Thankfully, scientists are ON IT. Experts from the Centre for the Study of the Arctic and from the Cryosphere Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences are on an expedition as we speak.

Check out this video of the mysterious crater, shot from a helicopter.

[Zack Attack]

[Mad Dawgg]

You win! Best Post of the thread!

[tet68]

It’s on my bucket list.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

The next generation of hortas have hatched.

[publius911]

Gophers.....really big gophers.

Just check out the documentary films, Tremors.

[Jim Noble]

[The Cajun]

Finally common sense on the thread, LOL!

[Pelham]

Art Bell is paging you..

[ForYourChildren]

Oh no! Divide by Zero!

I thought the Russians were smarter than that.

[djf]

That’s what I was wondering... almost looks like an alien laser or something did it!

[Company Man]

There needs to be something of known size in the images to gauge the true size. This could almost be a fairly large gopher hole.

262 feet is 87 yards. Think of a football player catching a kickoff on his own goal line and being tackled at his opponent's 12 yard line. Thats a pretty darn big hole they gots there..

[PLMerite]

“262 feet is 87 yards.”

That’s how big they say it is. There’s still nothing in the images I’ve seen to provide any kind of scale. Not that it matters; there doesn’t seem to be anything sinister about it.

[jurroppi1]

Some call it a pingo: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/18/new-pictures-of-the-hole-in-yamal-and-pingo-was-its-name-o/

[fso301]

Hmm? The Atlanteans are obviously working on something down below.

[going hot]

montecello dam?

[Nachoman]

God sees the world is due for an enema and that where he’s going to stick the hose.

[ForYourChildren]

I don’t know where the dam is located.

A while back I did a google on divide by zero and looked at all the images. Very funny. That one at the dam and the mine were two of my favorites. I think I was at that mine a couple of years ago in s Africa. Hard to tell from the angle.

[going hot]

Looks like the overflow glory hole at the montecello dam, the one that makes lake berryessa in norcal.

[UnwashedPeasant]

If we don't jump in the Merkel hole with the Europe, we are not real friends.