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Mysterious Siberian Crater Is Just One of Many
New submitter Sardaukar86 sends this excerpt from a Washington Post report:
In the middle of last summer came news of a bizarre occurrence no one could explain. Seemingly out of nowhere, a massive crater appeared in one of the planet's most inhospitable lands. Early estimates said the crater, nestled in a land called "the ends of the Earth" where temperatures can sink far below zero, yawned nearly 100 feet in diameter. The saga deepened. The Siberian crater wasn't alone. There were two more, ratcheting up the tension in a drama that hit its climax as a probable explanation surfaced. Global warming had thawed the permafrost, which had caused methane trapped inside the icy ground to explode.
Now, however, researchers fear there are more craters than anyone knew — and the repercussions could be huge. Russian scientists have now spotted a total of seven craters, five of which are in the Yamal Peninsula. Two of those holes have since turned into lakes. And one giant crater is rimmed by a ring of at least 20 mini-craters, the Siberian Times reported.
Now, however, researchers fear there are more craters than anyone knew — and the repercussions could be huge. Russian scientists have now spotted a total of seven craters, five of which are in the Yamal Peninsula. Two of those holes have since turned into lakes. And one giant crater is rimmed by a ring of at least 20 mini-craters, the Siberian Times reported.
Black Rock City Subway categorically denies that these craters are a result of our sandworm breeding program. Scurrilous reports in The Daily Mail fail to take into account that sandworms react poorly to moist environments. Sometimes they even explode when exposed to water. Oh, wait...
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What are you talking about? Pseudo-scientific bullshit it what /. is about!
Gazprom is aggressively and heroically working to remove the methane from the ground in that region. With any luck, they'll be able to remove it all so we can burn it before anything goes wrong.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
This is old news - the craters have a known, definitive explanation and it's not anything mysterious.