Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – The forces of Mother Nature are very powerful, and they are responsible for the creation of incredible and scary objects.
A new giant sinkhole has opened up in the Arctic, but this one is unique. It is always concerning when giant sinkholes are suddenly appearing out of nowhere, but this is not a new phenomenon in Siberia. Such enormous holes have appeared in the region since 2014. At least 17 huge holes have been spotted in the area over recent years.
The new funnel filmed from air by the team of Yamal-based TV station. Picture from July 2020 by Vesti Yamal
According to Siberian Times, the recently-formed new hole or funnel “was initially spotted by chance from the air by a Vesti Yamal TV crew en route from an unrelated assignment.
A group of scientists then made an expedition to examine the large cylindrical crater which has a depth of up to 50 meters.
Such huge monster holes are believed to be caused by the build-up of methane gas in pockets of thawing permafrost under the surface.
Scientists are naturally troubled by these huge holes, but investigations have provided researchers with valuable information.
“What we saw today is striking in its size and grandeur.
These are the colossal forces of nature that create such objects,” Dr. Evgeny Chuvilin, a leading researcher at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology said.
Credit: Vasily Bogoyavlensky
Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky, of the Russian Oil and Gas Research Institute in Moscow, told Vesti Yamal: “This object is unique. It carries a lot of additional scientific information, which I am not yet ready to disclose.
This is a subject for scientific publications. We have to analyze all this, and build three-dimensional models.”
The craters appear because ‘gas-saturated cavities are formed in the permafrost.
In a literal sense, a void space filled with gas with high pressure. The covering layer distends, the thickness of which is 5-10 meters approximately.
Explosions have happened in swelling pingos, or mounds in the tundra which erupts when the gas builds up under a thick cap of ice.
Credit: Vasily Bogoyavlensky
Bogoyavlensky has previously claimed that human activities, like drilling for gas from the vast Yamal reserves could be a factor in the eruptions.
He is concerned at the risk of ecological disasters if pingos build up close to gas pipelines, production facilities, or residential areas.
Pingos are intrapermafrost ice-cored hills, ranging in height from 3 to 70 m (10 to 230 ft) and 30 to 1,000 m (98 to 3,281 ft) in diameter. They are typically conical in shape and grow and persist only in permafrost environments, such as the Arctic and subarctic.
“In a number of areas, pingos – as we see both from satellite data and with our own eyes during helicopter inspections – literally prop up gas pipes,” he said previously.
Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff