Scientists Have Finally Made It To The Bottom Of One Of The Mysterious Siberian Holes

Business Insider ^ | Nov 13 2014 | Peter Farquhar

[cripplecreek]

Interesting geology in Siberia.

[cripplecreek]

Interesting Siberian holes.

[Lurker]

“Interesting Siberian holes.”

I dated a girl from Siberia for a while.

[lee martell]

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!

[cripplecreek]

Many pictures here.

http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0018-exclusive-new-pictures-inside-mystery-siberian-crater/

They look like sink holes but that doesn’t explain the piles of debris around the rims.

[Steely Tom]

16 meters? That’s only about 50 feet. Kind of a let-down.

Hey, I made a joke.

[43north]

Beans.

[dfwgator]

How many does it take to fill the Albert Hall?

[GeronL]

almost as if something crashed there or exploded from below?

[Fungi]

Good observation: “the piles of debris around the rim.”

[icwhatudo]

[kaehurowing]

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.

[EEGator]

Was she interesting?

[ClearCase_guy]

The Journey To The Center of The Earth — it’s not quite as far as some people thought.

[cripplecreek]

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.

[cripplecreek]

Checking out Google earth. Looks like the Yamal Pensinsula is already covered with sink holes.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

A Siberian hole:

Russian A hole:

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks cripplecreek.

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.

[Sacajaweau]

Looks like it pulled surface material toward the hole and it accumulated as it sunk. In other words there was some cohesion at the surface... probably because the surface was frozen...

Bet these holes are a lot older than we think.

[texas booster]

From the comments section:

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.