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Mysterious Siberian Crater Is Just One of Many

Posted by Soulskill on from the watch-out-for-exploding-earth dept.

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.

88 comments

  1. anus is just one of many by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    hello.jpg

    1. Re:anus is just one of many by fodendaf · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      Buy this domain. goat.cx 2015 Copyright. All Rights Reserved. The Sponsored Listings displayed above are served automatically by a third party. Neither the service provider nor the domain owner maintain any relationship with the advertisers. In case of trademark issues please contact the domain owner directly (contact information can be found in whois). Privacy Policy thanks for the link.

  2. Denial by ChrisKnight · · Score: 4, Funny

    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...

    --
    -- This sig is only a test. If this were a real sig it would say something witty. --
    1. Re:Denial by skyking · · Score: 1

      Yes, but when you drown one of the baby makers and consume the water ... I say let the sandworms breed - the resulting natural selection beats the heck out of anything the Bene Gesserit [junk science movement] can come up with.

      --
      Blaming guns for Columbine is like blaming spoons for Rosie O'Donnell being fat.
  3. stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by iggymanz · · Score: 1, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by Brett+Buck · · Score: 4, Funny

      What are you talking about? Pseudo-scientific bullshit it what /. is about!

    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:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by Allasard · · Score: 1
      As long as it's not the re-awakening of a mantle plume under this!

      Siberian Traps

      That puts any supervolcanoes to shame.

      Although the plates have shifted locations since that eruption.

    6. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's fair enough to speculate that recent variations in local temperatures might have been a factor, but it should be backed up with local data and research.

      Northern latitudes see particularly strong effects from space weather, so it's worth researching the effects of ground currents. It is also very probable that we're not very many hundred years away from a magnetic reversal. At depth (but not the surface), there's already reverse polarity at the South Atlantic magnetic anomaly. Relatively rapid, and accelerating, change has been going on since the mid 1800's. The Earth has been through these things many times before, but well before any written history. We should open-mindedly look at all theories, at least temporarily setting aside preconceived notions to look open-mindedly at every clue. Do regions of the Earth flex a tiny bit during geomagnetic storms? There are mechanisms for both transient and slower subtle influences on what happens below the Earth surface. Those don't spell doom either.
      One theory doesn't automatically exclude the others.

      We think of bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen when running current through water. But if we add salt it's more like hydrogen and chlorine. Could transient ground currents from space weather contribute to reef bleaching?

      If we shut out the talking heads for a while and mix a healthy blend of widely-diverse attentiveness with regular periods of deep critical thought, serendipity may follow.

    7. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by earthminion · · Score: 1

      Talk of the amount of Methane gas building up has been around for years. Here's one TV program the BBC broadcast 5 years ago.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Imagine a large pocket of methane suddenly bursting free under some pressure. It would only take a little spark to set it off. For example, throw some stones onto some other stones. Just two stones hitting each other would make a nice spark etc.. That would easily create some big holes.

      But that's just an impressive side show. Its biggest danger however is the potential for Positive Feedback because Methane is of course a far worse greenhouse gas than CO2, so large amounts of it being released will increase warming, so more Methane will be released and faster. Release large amounts of Methane and we easily start talking about a few metres of sea rise in a matter of a few decades.

    8. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 3, Informative

      Imagine a large pocket of methane suddenly bursting free under some pressure. It would only take a little spark to set it off. For example, throw some stones onto some other stones. Just two stones hitting each other would make a nice spark etc.. That would easily create some big holes.

      It doesn't usually work that way. If it did, we'd have far more fires and explosions in homes that heat with gas.

      When gas leaks, the vast majority of the gassed area has too high concentration of gas, and too low concentration of oxygen, to burn. Further out, it's too much air and too little gas. It is only at the "interface" between those two conditions that combustion is possible, and relatively speaking that's a miniscule volume compared to either the "air" volume or the "gas" volume at any given time.

      In addition to that, if ignition does occur, usually only that small volume with the ideal mix burns, leaving (again) a volume of too-high concentration, and another too low. Explosions can alter that by chaotically mixing the gas with the surrounding air, and multiplying itself. But that seldom happens.

      To sum it all up: gas fires and explosions are not very common, because conditions have to be nearly ideal at the precise spot where the ignition takes place. They happen on TV vastly more often than in real life.

    9. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by earthminion · · Score: 1

      "It doesn't usually work that way. If it did, we'd have far more fires and explosions in homes that heat with gas. "

      Oh so according to you, it can't ever happen even in an area of many tens of thousands of acres, even if we wait years to find a few events. Try vastly increasing your scale of thinking before you try to be so closedmindedly dismissive. Plus Methane holes in ice, (like cracks) can be very irregular, so yes, they can mix with air, plus also you can have trapped Oxygen and/or air bubbles below ice as well as Methane.

    10. Re: stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by jd · · Score: 1

      The Great Extinction, caused by Siberia becoming one gigantic lava bed (probably after an asteroid strike), was a bit further back in time. Geologically, Siberia is old. You might be confusing the vestiges of Ice Age dessication (which was 10,000 years ago) but which involves the organics on the surface with the geology (aka rocks).

      Regardless, though, of how the craters are forming, the fact remains that an awful lot of greenhouse gas is being pumped into the air, an awful lot of information on early civilization is being blasted out of existence, and a lot of locals are finding that the land has suddenly become deadly.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    11. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      Oh so according to you, it can't ever happen even in an area of many tens of thousands of acres, even if we wait years to find a few events.

      That isn't what I said,

      Trying to put words in my mouth is a dick thing to do. Knock it off.

    12. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you even looked at the close up pictures? They dont look anything like sinkholes. Look at the way the earth is deformed around the edge of the crater. It clearly looks like something pushed up and out, not collapsed in.

    13. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1
      In any case the Russians have the explanation. From TFA:

      For example, you all remember the magnificent shots of the Yamal crater in winter, made during the latest expedition in Novomber 2014. But do you know that Vladimir Putin, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, was the first man in the world who went down the crater of gas emission riding on a bear? More than this, it was very risky, because no one could guarantee there would not be Ukrainian Kike-Banderites hiding down there.'

    14. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by sumdumass · · Score: 2

      Ice expands as it freezes. We also know water under pressure will super cool and not freeze but it will still expand. Take a pop bottle and fill it with water without putting the cap on and set it in the freezer. It will spill out the top. Put the cap on it and it will simple expand the plastic bottle (or break a glass bottle)

      Now imagine a hole in the ground or a pocket of water just under the surface of the ground. It freezes, pushes up, and brings the ground with it a bit. It's under pressure so it doesn't all freeze but exerts force in pretty much a radius. The relief point is up until the weight of the column of water finds another relief point (a crack in the earth leading to sea or something.) If you look at the craters again, you will not find enough material around the edges to correct for the amount missing from the hole.

      Now there is something called geothermal flux which is more or less changes in the heat within the ground. It is already being blamed for some of the permafrost melting. And we know there are perforations within the permafrost in the sea beds off the coast which are letting methane release. It's could have aided in the release and removal of material assuming water under pressure was in fact not frozen in these areas.

      The pictures do not look like sink holes can be ruled out. What would likely rule sink holes out would be the depths of the permafrost as well as when it was originally established (the last ice age I believe).

    15. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by earthminion · · Score: -1, Troll

      Your glibly dismissive attitude overlooks so much, but instead of answering the points you play affronted, thereby not answering the points raised. You know damn well you were wrongly dismissive.

    16. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Another factor is nearby gas wells have lowered the local water table recently which changes how seasonal thawing happens on the spot, so "warming" should be taken literally as a matter of local conditions instead of a knee jerk assumption that the observer was blaming it on global warming so must be burned as a witch.

    17. Re:stop the pseudo-scientific bullshit by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Your glibly dismissive attitude overlooks so much, but instead of answering the points you play affronted, thereby not answering the points raised. You know damn well you were wrongly dismissive.

      You didn't MAKE any points. Instead, you argued with something I didn't say. I merely stated that it USUALLY doesn't work that way, and explained why. My description was accurate. I didn't say it was impossible. But you glibly assumed that it was LIKELY. It was not.

      End of discussion.

  4. 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.

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

      Nah, the sink holes are part of the ongoing battle between Perun and Veles. Those holes are the gateways between the world and the underworld and that's where all the living dead that roam over the Russian lands come frome, sent back to the world by Veles. The pseudo-scientists and Russian Orthodox Church try to let us believe that it are 'desomorphine addicts' in an attempt to keep us dumb and lead us away from the truth!

    2. Re:Global warming is non-scientific hooey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nonsense! The craters have been deliberately excavated by IPCC scientists in their craven search for ever more funding! The Caterpillar tracks, leading all the way to the University of East Anglia are a dead giveaway.

  5. Help me out here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    How exactly did global warming cause the methane to explode?

    The argument that trapped methane can be released from permafrost is somewhat questionable.

    First off, if truly trapped in the permafrost, the methane is likely still gaseous. (Methane freezes at -187 degrees celsius).

    So we must assume that the gas is trapped under the frozen soil at or blow the depth of the permafrost.

    So what ignited it at that depth?

    1. Re:Help me out here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So what ignited it at that depth?

      Nothing ignited it.

      From TFA:

      Gas pressure increased until it was high enough to push away the overlaying layers in a powerful injection, forming the crater

    2. Re:Help me out here by stevelinton · · Score: 5, Informative

      You need to find out about methane clathrates. They are very roughly a chemical compound of methane and water which is solid and stable at low temperatures and moderately high pressures (as found under a few hundred meters of water or ice, for instance. When they get a bit too warm, or the pressure drops a bit they turn back into methane gas and water. One cubic meter of clathrate released almost 200 cubic meters of methane gas, which then has to go somewhere producing something like an explosion. At no point did the methane burn (it was nowhere near any free oxygen until it got to the surface, it was just a gas pressure explosion.

    3. Re:Help me out here by justthinkit · · Score: 2

      Also known as methane hydrates, there is no use of the word "explosive" on the mh page. It has a density lower than water, so tends to bubble up (and then evaporate). Being denser than air, it could accumulate at times and potentially explode in that scenario. But not underground, creating giant holes.

      --
      I come here for the love
    4. Re:Help me out here by stevelinton · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think the idea is this:
      You have a large volume of clathrates underneath ice or frozen soil.
      As things warm, they start to break down and a reservoir of methane gas builds up
      at high pressure.
      Eventually the pressure reaches the point where it can push aside or lift up or whatever the ice at its weakest point
      and it finds a route to the surface.

      Now you have a LOT of gas rushing through some kind of hole, a little bit like an oil well blowout and the gas flow erodes the sides of the hole and throws soil or ice into the air and generally starts to make a crater.

      Furthermore the escape of all this gas lowers the pressure down where the clathrates are quite suddenly, so the breakdown accelerated greatly, providing still more gas to ruch up through the hole.

      So not really an explosion, perhaps more like a blowout, but still fairly violent simply because of the amount of gas and the pressure.

      At no point does it combust.

    5. Re:Help me out here by Livius · · Score: 1

      Quite bit like how a geyser works.

    6. Re:Help me out here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ))

      Your inability to use parenthesis hurts my brain. With a UID like that, you should know better.

    7. Re:Help me out here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i don't think a "firey" exlosion is necessary.

      in the siberiantimes pictures you can see how water has washed sediment back into the crater, even to the layer much darker/greyer than the topsoil. the rim may have been a lot steeper initially. similar to the crater wall below.

      remember those "liquid sand" picture frames?

      when you had a bubble of air pushing through a sand barrier on top the sand directly above it could not fall down, but the sand on the sides of the bubble slowly trickled down, allowing the bubble to move up while building up a vertical column of newly formed "reordered" sediment below.
      occasionally sand would stick above and move the bubble left or right. i imagine this worked similarly (the last pictures show a side pocket in the crater). a bubble pushing up and wet mud flowing down on the edges allowing it to go up. occasionally the groud would freeze, stopping the whole process and during thawing it might change direction of the bubble.
      when the bubble reached the surface, air would escape very quickly (i imagine pressure under ground is much higher than atmosphere) and push the topsoil/mud on top of the bubble aside, which would cause this final "explosion" forming the "thrown earth rim" the pictures show.
      following this hypothesis the volume of the crater we see, minus the volume of dirt thrown up at the rim is the volume of the gas bubble, but we don't know the pressure. we also probably cannot say from how deep it came, since the floor of the crater was newly formed by mud, that slowly trickled down at the edges.

    8. Re:Help me out here by skyking · · Score: 1

      In other words, mother nature broke wind.

      --
      Blaming guns for Columbine is like blaming spoons for Rosie O'Donnell being fat.
  6. The Titans are here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    New methane based life form found on Titan now seen on Earth... News at eleven.

  7. doom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    In the name of profits and unwillingness to change, we are going to be the cause of our own extinction. We are so fucked.

  8. Units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    where temperatures can sink far below zero

    Temperatures sink far below zero celsius in a lot of places on the planet.

    If you don't use the metric system... Fuck you! /Idiocracy

    1. Re: Units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hurrah for metric, and the fucking decimal place on my thermostats. Seriously, the ameriicicans have something going with farenheit, but their units for cooking make no sense at all.

  9. I have no problem explaining this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's much more likely that Russia is testing weapons there, rather than methane suddenly becoming spontaneously combustible.

    1. Re:I have no problem explaining this by Skidborg · · Score: 2

      Methane has always been combustible.

      --
      Supporter of the +1 Over Dramatic mod option. In memory of apk.
    2. Re:I have no problem explaining this by itzly · · Score: 1

      So your hypothesis is that the Russians are doing secret weapon testing in a remote area, and then showing the results in the news ?

    3. Re:I have no problem explaining this by narcc · · Score: 1

      Yes, but it tends not to combust spontaneously.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
    4. Re:I have no problem explaining this by itzly · · Score: 2

      That's mostly because people around the world are very careful not to let sufficient quantities of methane mix with air in an stoichiometric ratio.

    5. Re:I have no problem explaining this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That requires a source of ignition, a spark or a flame. Thawing permafrost is neither of those. Global warming is neither of those. Methane doesn't just spontaneously combust.

    6. Re:I have no problem explaining this by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      There is limited evidence of combustion. You can have an explosion from rapidly expanding gases without any sort of ignition. Some reindeer herders supposedly saw 'flashes' but it is certainly unclear if these were due to a methane ignition, the aurora borealis or just too much fermented lichen.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    7. Re:I have no problem explaining this by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      What good is a Doomsday device if nobody knows about?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    8. Re:I have no problem explaining this by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

      What good is a Doomsday device if nobody knows about?

      An easy excuse to make a great documentary with reconstructions played by Peter Sellers? :)

      --
      ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
    9. Re:I have no problem explaining this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What good is a Doomsday device if nobody knows about?

      It makes it less likely that your own military causes your annihilation by shooting first. You're less trigger happy if you're confident that an automated massive retaliation is inevitable if you are attacked. Your military might shoot first anyway if they suspect the enemy can find a way to disable it, so you have to keep it secret.

      Revealing that you have a credible doomsday device lowers the odds of the enemy shooting first, but a secret one lowers the odds of your side shooting first, so you need two doomsday devices. (I swear I don't work for the doomsday device industry.)

    10. Re:I have no problem explaining this by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Don't over think this one.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    11. Re: I have no problem explaining this by jd2112 · · Score: 2

      I guess I'm not having chilli for dinner tonight.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    12. Re:I have no problem explaining this by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      Still a while until Putin's birthday. Maybe they're just testing it early.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    13. Re:I have no problem explaining this by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      And yet, the War Room is the inspiration for overpriced conference rooms in bureaucracies the world over.

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  10. Do not fear by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Funny

    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."
  11. The U.S. has its own mysterious "craters" too by Solandri · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are a series of "craters" in the U.S. as well, though much older. The Carolina bays are elliptical depressions located along the Atlantic seaboard of unknown origin. Theories of the origins being geologic or extraterrestrial impacts have come in and out of favor. Nobody really knows. (And before you say that impact craters are round regardless of the angle of impact, that's true until you get to very shallow impact angles. Then the craters end up being oval.)

  12. It never combusted. by johncandale · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It never combusted. The permafrost melted and it all just went in the atmosphere and the loss of mass caused a sinkhole. The summary is bad. There was never a explosion besides the dust settling. Think ice sheet breaking. Once it pasts melting point, it accelerates fast enough to watch it with your eyes. If this keep happening most of the timescale modals of global warming are off and we will have reached a weird point-of-no-return due to the major mass of methane added to the atmosphere all at once.

    1. Re:It never combusted. by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

      It never combusted. The permafrost melted and it all just went in the atmosphere and the loss of mass caused a sinkhole. The summary is bad. There was never a explosion besides the dust settling.

      You're right, the summary could have been better, however I can say in its defence that the summary as you read it now is an awful lot better than the one I submitted.

      It's quite a reasonable assumption that combustion is involved when coming across a discussion about a methane explosion, however in this situation there was no actual combustion. Despite this, the event was still quite accurately described as a methane exploding. Is there a common method of differentiating the two other than affixing a disclaimer about a "pressure explosion" versus a "combustion pressure explosion"?

      --
      ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
    2. Re:It never combusted. by Layzej · · Score: 1

      Is there a common method of differentiating the two other than affixing a disclaimer about a "pressure explosion" versus a "combustion pressure explosion"?

      Maybe "eruption" for the former?

    3. Re:It never combusted. by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

      Nice and simple, works for me. :)

      --
      ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
    4. Re:It never combusted. by Ol+Biscuitbarrel · · Score: 1

      Perhaps these sinkholes are appearing due to overtesting of house atomics.

    5. Re:It never combusted. by Sardaukar86 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps these sinkholes are appearing due to overtesting of house atomics.

      Whilst I wouldn't put it past House Putin, even without the Landsraad he'd still have some explaining to do. Could provide some interesting popcorn-munching action for those of us on the arse end of ol' Terra. :)

      Joking aside and somewhat offtopic, Herbert saw the obvious outcome of using these weapons; it was scarcely twenty years into Muad'Dib's reign (when he used nukes against the shield wall) before his eyes were taken by the 'burner. Once that Pandora's Box has been opened there's no going back. The foolish notion that the use of 'limited', 'limited yield' or 'very small tactical' weapons can in any way contain the size of a nuclear engagement must also be laid to rest.

      --
      ..Mullah or Pope, Preacher or Poet, who was it wrote: "Give any one species too much rope and they'll fuck it up"?
    6. Re:It never combusted. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "gas pressure explosion" seems decent, I have seen and heard tires (or inner tube) blow up quite a few times. Steam boilers exploding in the industrial era (19th century and up) are also known as well, exploding.

    7. Re:It never combusted. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Fart", surely?

    8. Re:It never combusted. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The big problem with the due-to-warming explanation is that it was both warmer in Siberia during the Holocene Optimum (4000-10000 years ago) as well as during the previous interglacial, the Eemian, 115000-130000 years ago.

  13. Don't explosions create seismic waves? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If these are truly explosions ejecting many tons of earth out of these holes, wouldn't they be detected by seismographs around the world, or at least in Russia? I think they should plant seismic detectors in the area so they can immediately detect the next explosion and quickly send a research team to site.

    1. Re:Don't explosions create seismic waves? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      I don't know if it's in this article, but in an article I read before they planned to do exactly that - put three seismographs in the region, as currently whatever caused the holes did not register on the seismographs elsewhere in Russia (since it appears they are not really explosions but pressure caused ejections, the earth would not be as shaken).

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    2. Re:Don't explosions create seismic waves? by tompaulco · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If these are truly explosions ejecting many tons of earth out of these holes, wouldn't they be detected by seismographs around the world, or at least in Russia? I think they should plant seismic detectors in the area so they can immediately detect the next explosion and quickly send a research team to site.

      Yes, if there had been a large explosion, even if it was not combustion, that amount of earth moving would have been measurable by seismic instruments thousands of miles away. Quarry explosions have been known to display as earthquakes as large as 2.7 on the Richter scale and felt for hundreds of miles, and those would pale in comparison to the amount of earth movement involved in the Siberian craters. It is much more likely that they escaping gas just gradually caused sinkholes, which would still create seismic events, but would be more likely many smaller ones and probably would not pick up on instruments unless they were within 100 miles.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    3. Re:Don't explosions create seismic waves? by pjt33 · · Score: 1

      The Siberia Times article talks about a plan to put "not less than four seismic stations" in the region.

  14. Strange shouts heard in the area just.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just before the craters were formed, locals heard, "Kamaya-Maya"

  15. Source of the craters already known by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is old news - the craters have a known, definitive explanation and it's not anything mysterious.

    1. Re:Source of the craters already known by STRICQ · · Score: 1

      Funny.

  16. You insensitiv3 clod? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    NetBSD posts 0n very disTracting to

  17. We're doomed.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "And one giant crater is rimmed by a ring of at least 20 mini-craters..."

    Oh my God, they're reproducing. We're doomed.

  18. Selfie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It seems Siberia is trying to go frack itself.

    1. Re:Selfie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It might also be the Earth trying to fart us out of existence.

  19. Diamond mines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look like diamond mines to me. Diamonds are found in Kimberlite tubes, prob they are test mines

  20. Any coordinates? by Stan92057 · · Score: 1

    Any coordinates? Just looking at the Yamal Peninsula using Google Earth there are hundreds apon hundreds of what i would call very round lakes. I would say they could be old meteor hits but im no scientist.

    --
    Jack of all trades,master of none
  21. Global Warming Is Eating Siberia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Global warming will melt Siberia, and turn it into SlushyBera, a new rasberry flavor health drink for Russians.

  22. Mole People by cstacy · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  23. Ignition Source by Guppy · · Score: 2

    It would only take a little spark to set it off.

    If ignition actually happened, my bet is on a triboelectric spark. All that soil and ice getting tossed up will generate a charge, just like you see in thunderstorms and volcanic eruptions.

  24. Pingos! by STRICQ · · Score: 2

    The holes are not mysterious at all. There is even a name for them.

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/201...

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

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

  25. Proof in pictures, or it didn't happen (recently) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With the claims going around, I'd like to see the BEFORE images, not just the AFTER images + lots of claims. Otherwise, how do I know these are new, and not dozens, hundreds, or thousands of years old?

    These look like sink-holes in Florida.

  26. Old Story Not News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the late 1970s and into the Gorbachov administration of the Soviet fielded and tested a direct energy orbital system, orbital laser weapon, i.e. battle laser.
    Points on the Yamal and Taymr Penisula's were used for testing the strength and effectiveness .

    Ultimately the orbital battle laser, and its nuclear reactor for power, was too expensive to operate and the Soviet abandoned it.

    It still orbits Earth.

  27. Re:Proof in pictures, or it didn't happen (recentl by Layzej · · Score: 1

    "Studying the satellite images we found out that initially there were no craters nor a lake. Some craters appeared, then more." - TFA

  28. Snow! by allfieldsrequired · · Score: 1

    A republican managed to throw a snowball during his speech, so obviously global warming can be ruled out!

  29. Come on now! by Sqreater · · Score: 1

    We should all know these are left over from the attack by the Silver Surfer. The Fantastic Four, like all superhero groups, never cleans up after saving mankind.

    --
    E Proelio Veritas.
  30. now i get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This explains so much about the fireswamp

  31. GFUS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is a goddamn fucking disgrace! These craters are caused by expanding liquid beneath the permafrost they have been documented for 100 years. this has nothing to do with the real and catastrophic irreversible effects of global climate change.