Slashdot Mirror


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.

5 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Global warming is non-scientific hooey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The scientific explanation would be that God is angry at the Russian heathens.

  2. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by Dutchmaan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The only one I see "wailing" here is you. People are confused and somewhat concerned, not "wailing".

  3. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    1. This land is geologically YOUNG, it is less than ten thousand years old

    2. The earth itself is warming the underside of the permafrost, even if there is contribution from global warming https://cage.uit.no/news/metha...

    Thus there is no reason to wail about some imagined harbinger of doom because of these sinkholes.

    iggymanz may very well be one of the worlds leading scientists with a better understanding of this than the interviewed researches, but regardless you seem to be attacking a straw man as most of the researchers interviewed in the article seems curious and open, have theories but says more research is needed. The only one with very strongly worded categorical claims here here is you.

  4. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by itzly · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they were sinkholes, there wouldn't be ejecta around the crater edge. Something must have exploded.

  5. Re:Pingos! by Layzej · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Given your source, I'm guessing the name is "anything but global warming?"