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."
Underground nuclear tests?
Aliens, zeroing in their scopes...
Dateline next week....... Same group will blame earth AGW for a hotter sun. :)
Why would there be gas in the permafrost? Could there be old plant matter? How can there be plant matter if there is permafrost?
Global warming my rear end. THE FOREIGNERS just securing a place to hide after Lois’s email’s are recovered.
The writer just couldn’t resist blaming it on global warming!
Does water explode? Not usually.
Does salt explode? Not usually.
Does "gas" explode? Well, that sorta depends ...
Giant Radioactive moles.
It’s called a permafrost pingo. They are very common there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingo
New pictures of the hole in Yamal – and Pingo was its name-o
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/18/new-pictures-of-the-hole-in-yamal-and-pingo-was-its-name-o/
A flip-flop on Arctic permafrost thaws – actually a net cooling rather than a warming
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/18/a-flip-flop-on-arctic-permafrost-thaws-actually-a-net-cooling-rather-than-a-warming/
Probably methane hydrate same as found on the bottom of the ocean.
Reaches a saturation point then pop!
The permafrost begins inches or feet below the surface. Growth of vegetation, moss, lichens, over the summer warming, then freezes and the following season new growth flourishes over the top of the old.
So yes, there are layers and layers and layers of decaying or partly decayed matter which during the seasonal thaws releases methane, or natural gas which sometimes can ignite from lightning or other natural or man made causes.
To explode, conditions have to be right, perhaps with a cave or underground grotto with the right mixture of air and gas and a ignition source.
It could happen, but whether it happened here requires research. It does not look like much of a explosion to me..
More like a ground fart.
Yup....that’s it .......
Oh, they’re giant wormholes?
giant gophers
earth zit
Eons ago, pressure of gases built to such a extreme level that giant sandworms were blasted out of underground Siberia all the way to Arrakis. I’m reasonably certain of it.
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