Because of what mystical craters are formed in the permafrost of Siberia, and how it threatens humanity

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The mysterious craters, first discovered in 2014, have intrigued and puzzled scientists around the world. What assumptions about their origin were not put forward! The most outlandish of which was that they appeared as a result of a stray missile strike, or even thanks to aliens from outer space (how much without them!). A new expedition to mysterious craters in Yamal, in northern Russia, shows how they have changed since they were first spotted. It also became clear that not all craters were formed in the same way. What did scientists manage to find out about this mystery?

Experts believe that craters in the icy tundra on the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas have begun to appear due to climate change and the melting of permafrost in Siberia. Man played a significant role here in his insatiable thirst to pump out all its riches from the bowels of the Earth. Scientists discovered that one of these huge pits was filled with water. Craters are blasted hills or pingos.

Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky, who led one of the last expeditions, said: “I think that next year it will be full of water and completely turn into a lake. In some 10-20 years, it will be difficult to say what actually happened here. The parapet is washed away by rains and melted snow, the banks are flooded with water. The crater fills up with water pretty quickly - a couple of years have passed, so we need to quickly explore such objects."

The professor believes that the craters are formed from pingo, which experts initially doubted. Due to the heat flow emanating from the bowels of the Earth, the pingo begins to melt, its half-melted ice core is filled with methane gas. After an explosion occurs, throwing ice and soil into the air, and as a result, craters are formed. While methane is believed to be largely to blame, readings from the last expedition showed no abnormal gas levels in place.

Seventeen more craters have formed recently. The database, which scientists are creating, studying this phenomenon, has more than seven thousand hills on the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas. The most dangerous are the northern and southern Tambey, near the city of Sabetta and the Seyakha region. According to experts, a notable crater is called C1 in the central part of the Yamal Peninsula. It exploded in 2014, throwing soil and chunks of ice nearly 1,000 meters into the air. The remaining crater was about twenty-five meters in diameter and about fifty meters deep.

By the fall of 2016, it was filled with water, forming a real lake. One woman was so intrigued by this pingo that she came to see it every day. One day she felt a tremor emanating from the depths of the earth, which she described as "the breath of the earth." Fortunately, the tremors scared her and she ran away, and immediately after that the pingo exploded. A curious young lady would surely have been killed by an explosion or a blast wave.

Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky claims that only 4-5% of pingos are dangerous. He believes that it is necessary to look for ways to release the gas before the explosion occurs. The professor suggested pumping out the gas slowly. Other experts believe that this can be very dangerous.

Many pingos are not dangerous. They only emit gas, but there is currently no way to distinguish between embankments. Some pingos are more likely to collapse than explode when their ice core begins to melt. It can take years to create a pingo. On the Yamal Peninsula, they form three times faster than in the regions of Northern Canada and Alaska.

In Tuktoyaktuk, in the Northwest Territories of Canada, there are about thirteen thousand pingos, which is about a quarter of the world. The hills stretch from the Canadian border to the bottom of the Yukon Valley. They appear in places such as Manly Hot Springs, Mackenzie Delta, Mount Hayes, Upper Tanana Valley, Tanacross, Fairbanks Creek, McKinley Creek and Pioneer Creek.

Pingos are very different in size - from fifteen to four hundred and fifty meters in width and from three to thirty meters in height. They are usually round or elliptical in shape. Central Asia has pingo at its highest points, including the Tibetan Plateau and the Canadian Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, where there are so many of them that they have created the Pingo National Landmark Zone.

The tallest pingo is found in Canada - Ibyuk Pingo. Its height is about fifty meters. Every year it grows in size by several tens of centimeters. Greenland has its fair share of pingo with over a hundred hills.

They are mainly found in Disko Bay, on the Cuganguac alluvial plain and on the Nuussuaq Peninsula in western Greenland, as well as in the eastern part near Nioghalvfjordsfjord. They are also constantly growing.

The Yamal Peninsula is being actively developed. There are many energy facilities there. In particular, there is a very large pingo right under the gas pipeline. He even lifted the pipe like a screw jack. Scientists gave the officials all the information on this matter. After all, this combination is incredibly dangerous. So far, no action has been taken. Experts are still studying the phenomenon of "erupting pingo". This dangerous phenomenon must be watched very carefully, especially in those regions where oil and gas are produced. The danger of a sudden eruption is especially great there. It is very important to investigate this phenomenon quickly in order to try to prevent new pingo eruptions.

The last expedition was organized by the Yamal government with the active support of the Russian Center for Arctic Development. The vice-governor even took part in it personally. It was interesting for everyone to understand the true causes of the mysterious craters. After all, so many strange, even wild theories have been put forward!

A research team from the Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics has suggested that the craters may be associated with the Bermuda Triangle in the sense that explosions under the Atlantic Ocean caused by gas emissions are believed to partially explain the mystery of the disappearance of ships and aircraft. Ironically, the name Yamal means “end of the earth,” the same description applies to the Bermuda Triangle off the coast of Florida.

Nature is replete with incredible natural beauties, especially when people do not interfere with the art of the Creator. Read about one such phenomenon in our other article. salt sculptures of the Dead Sea, which make you freeze with delight.