Expedition investigates mysterious crater

Russian expedition examines a massive crater of unknown origin on the Yamal peninsula in northern Russia.

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Researchers have long contended that
the epicentre of global warming is also farthest from the reach of
humanity. It’s in the barren landscapes of the frozen north, where
red-cheeked children wear fur, the sun barely rises in the winter and
temperatures can plunge to 50 degrees below zero. Such a place is the
Yamal Peninsula in Siberia, translated as “the ends of the Earth”, a
desolate spit of land where a group called the Nenets live.



By now, you’ve heard of the crater on the Yamal Peninsula.
It’s the one that suddenly appeared, yawning nearly 60 metres in
diameter, and made several rounds in
the global viral media machine. The adjectives most often used to
describe it: giant, mysterious, curious. Scientists were
subsequently “baffled”. Locals were “mystified”. There were whispers
that aliens were responsible. Nearby residents peddled theories of “bright flashes” and “celestial bodies”.




There’s now a substantiated theory about what created the crater. And the news isn’t so good.





The original 80-metre wide crater in Siberia.
The original 80-metre wide crater in Siberia. Photo: AP


It may be methane gas, released by the thawing of frozen ground. According to a recent Nature article,
“air near the bottom of the crater contained unusually high
concentrations of methane — up to 9.6 per cent — in tests conducted at
the site on 16 July, says Andrei Plekhanov, an archaeologist at the
Scientific Centre of Arctic Studies in Salekhard, Russia. Plekhanov, who
led an expedition to the crater, says that air normally contains just
0.000179 per cent methane.”




The scientist said the methane release may be related to
Yamal’s unusually hot summers in 2012 and 2013, which were warmer by an
average of 5 degrees Celsius. “As temperatures rose, the researchers
suggest, permafrost thawed and collapsed, releasing methane that had
been trapped in the icy ground,” the report stated.



Plekhanov explained to Nature that
the conclusion is preliminary. He would like to study how much methane
is contained in the air trapped inside the crater’s walls. Such a task,
however, could be difficult. “Its rims are slowly melting and falling
into the crater,” the researcher told the science publication. “You can hear the ground falling, you can hear the water running; it’s rather spooky.”





Andrei Plekhanov, a researcher at the Scientific Research Center of the Arctic, stands at the entrance to the crater.
Andrei Plekhanov, a researcher at the Scientific Research Center of the Arctic, stands at the entrance to the crater. Photo: AP


“Gas pressure increased until it was high enough to push away
the overlaying layers in a powerful injection, forming the crater,” explained geochemist Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten of Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute, adding that he’s never seen anything like the crater.



Some scientists contend the thawing of such terrain, rife
with centuries of carbon, would release incredible amounts of methane
gas and affect global temperatures. “Pound for pound, the comparative
impact of [methane gas] on climate change is over 20 times greater than
[carbon dioxide] over a 100-year period,” reported the Environmental Protection Agency.



As the Associated Press put it in 2010, the melting of Siberia’s permafrost is “a climate time bomb waiting to explode if released into the atmosphere”.



Researchers with Stockholm University’s Department of Applied
Environmental Science recently witnessed methane releases in the East
Siberian Arctic Ocean. They found that “elevated methane levels [were]
about ten times higher than in background seawater,” wrote scientist Orjan Gustafsson on his blog last
week. He added: “This was somewhat of a surprise … This is information
that is crucial if we are to be able to provide scientific estimations
of how these methane releases may develop in the future.”



NASA also found the
situation to be precarious. “The fragile and rapidly changing Arctic
region is home to large reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse
gas,” scientists wrote in 2012. It’s “vulnerable to being released into the atmosphere, where it can add to global warming”.



Now, as two additional craters have also recently been
discovered in Siberia, researchers worry the craters may portend changes
to local Siberian life. Two have appeared close to a large gas field.
“If [a release] happens at the Bovanenkovskoye gas field that is only 30
kilometres away, it could lead to an accident, and the same if it
happens in a village,” Russian scientist Plekhanov told Nature.



The Washington Post