Thanks to satellite images, more than 20 new holes have been identified in Yamal. “Dear Moscow scientist, professor, Vasily Bogoyavlensky, for safety reasons, called for an urgent investigation of a new phenomenon observed in the Arctic,” writes The Siberian Times.

Until now, only three large sinkholes were known, two of which are located in Yamal, they turned into lakes, and one in Taimyr. Scientists considered climate change to be the main reason for the appearance of holes, as a result of which gas hydrates began to be released from below, from geological faults, which causes the formation of these holes in the Arctic regions.

Russian scientists, using satellite images, were able to understand that the holes are more widespread than it seemed at first glance. One huge hole was identified, surrounded by twenty smaller holes.

“Now we know about seven large holes in the Arctic zone,” said Vasily Bogoyavlensky. "Five directly on Yamal, one crater in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, near the Taimyr Peninsula."

"We only have precise coordinates for four of the holes. The other three were spotted by reindeer herders. But I'm sure there are other craters on Yamal, we just need to look for them."

"I would compare it to mushrooms: when you find one mushroom, there are bound to be several around. I would guess there could be 20 to 30 holes or more in the Arctic."

Russian scientists are racing to quickly explore holes in the ground as there are serious concerns about security in these regions.

A study of satellite images showed that near the famous hole, located 30 km from Bovanenkovo, there are two potentially dangerous objects where a gas explosion could occur at any moment.

Bogoyavlensky warned:

"These sites need to be studied, but it is quite dangerous for researchers. We know that gases can escape there over a long period of time, but we don't know exactly when."

“For example, you all remember the magnificent images of the Yamal holes in winter, taken during the last expedition in November 2014. But did you know that Vladimir Pushkarev, director of the Russian Arctic Development Center, was the first person in the world to descend into the crater of gas emissions? It was very risky because no one could guarantee that there would be no new emissions at that moment."

Professor Bogoyavlensky said:

"One of the most interesting objects in Yamal is the crater, which is marked as B2, located 10 kilometers south of Bovanenkovo. On the satellite image you can see that this is one large lake surrounded by more than 20 small craters filled with water."

"By studying satellite images, we found out that initially there were no holes and lakes. First, some holes appeared in the ground, then more. Then, I believe, the holes filled with water and several lakes formed, and then they merged into one large lake, 50- 100 meters in diameter."

"This large lake is surrounded by more than 20 smaller lakes, and I believe new ones could have appeared last summer or even now. Now we want to count them and catalog them. Some of them are very small, no more than 2 meters in diameter. "


“We haven’t been there yet,” said the professor. “Probably some local reindeer herders have been there, but they are still not scientists.”

He explained:

"After studying this object, I am sure that there is a release of a number of gases over a long period of time. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly when these emissions occur, i.e. mainly in summer, or in winter too. We only see the results of this emission "

Object B2 is now attracting particular attention from researchers as they seek to understand and explain the new phenomenon on Earth. It is just 10 km from Bovanenkovo, a large gas field developed by Gazprom in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Old satellite images do not show the existence of a lake, nor craters or holes, at this location.

But only new holes, constantly forming in Yamal, show that the process of gas release continues very actively.

Professor Bogoyavlensky shows an image of one of the Yamal lakes, taken from a helicopter and points to a whitish haze on its surface.

He commented:

"This fog that you see on the surface shows that there are gas emissions that come from the bottomlakes to the surface. We call this process "degassing".

"We don't know whether there was a hole there before and then turned into a lake, or whether the lake formed during some other process. What's more important is that gases are actively leaking through this lake."

"Degassation was discovered in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug about 45 years ago, but now we think it may give us some clues about the formation of holes and gases. In any case, we must investigate this phenomenon urgently to prevent possible disasters. "

Professor Bogoyavlensky emphasized:

"Right now we can only talk about the results of our work in the laboratory, using images from space."

"Nobody knows what is happening in these holes in Yamal at the moment. We are preparing a plan for a new expedition. We also want to install at least four seismic stations in the Yamal region, so that they can record small earthquakes that occur when a sinkhole appears. "

"In two cases, local residents told us that they felt tremors. The nearest seismic station was still too far away to register these tremors."

Crater B3 located 90 kilometers from the village of Antipayuta, Yamal region (above on the map). Crater B4 is located in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, near the Taimyr Peninsula. The photographs were taken by local residents.

"I think we know enough about hole B1 for now. There have been several expeditions, we've taken samples and made measurements. I think we should visit the other craters, namely B2, B3 and B4, and then visit the other three holes , when we know their exact location. This will give us more information and bring us even closer to understanding the phenomenon."

Bogoyavlensky called:

"It's important not to scare people, but to understand that this is a very serious problem and we need to start researching."

In an article in the journal Drilling and Oil, Professor Bogoyavlensky said that the edges of the Yamal holes indicate an underground explosion.

“The absence of charred parts and signs of significant erosion due to possible water leaks argue in favor of a powerful eruption of (pneumatic exhaust) gases from a shallow underground reservoir, which left no traces on the soil containing a high percentage of ice,” the professor wrote.

"In other words, it was a gas-explosive mechanism that was working there. Methane concentrations of 5-16% are explosive. The most explosive concentration is 9.5%."

"The parapet of these holes in Yamal indicates an underground explosion." - Vasily Bogoyavlensky reported. "The gas is likely concentrated in a cavity that is formed by the gradual melting of buried ice, which turns into water, and then the gas comes out of the water."

"A summer's experience has shown that escaping gases can cause serious damage to drilling rigs, oil and gas fields and offshore pipelines," he said. "The Yamal holes are essentially like pockmarks on the face of the Earth."

“We do not rule out new releases of gases in the Arctic and in some cases they may ignite. This is possible in the hole near the village of Antipayuta on Yamal.”

"Residents of the village of Antipayuta told how they saw some kind of flash. The gas was probably ignited when the B4 crater appeared near the Taimyr Peninsula. This shows us that such an explosion can be very dangerous and destructive."

“We must answer the basic questions: in what areas and under what conditions do emerging openings in the Arctic pose the greatest danger? These questions are important for the safe operation of northern cities and the infrastructure of oil and gas complexes.”

The latest expeditions to Yamal to the sinkholes were initiated by the Russian center for Arctic exploration in early November 2014. The explorers were the first in the world to descend into the hole.

395

A scientific expedition reached a huge hole in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. For several days, the giant funnel was examined only in videos on the Internet, trying to find out whether such a thing could even exist.

See also:

There are very different versions of how the hole appeared. Meteorite? But a celestial body of this size would be visible and audible upon approach. Man-made pit? There is a village 30 kilometers away; the locals would probably know something. Karst sinkhole? May be. Our correspondent Natalya Dubrovskaya studies the first information from the expedition participants:

These images were taken by oil workers flying around gas fields. Having assessed the mysterious pit, and most importantly its size, they came to the conclusion that the funnel is incredibly deep; you can go down inside in several Mi-8 helicopters at once.

The appearance of the pit immediately caused a lot of speculation and assumptions. Among the versions are the explosion of an atomic bomb, the fall of a meteorite, or even an alien ship. To find out what really happened here, a group of scientists from the Earth's cryosphere center immediately went to the site.

The frightening crater is located several tens of kilometers from the Bovanenkovskoye field, the largest gas reserve in Yamal. All around is a plain covered with dwarf forest. At the first glance at the pit, it became clear that only specialists with serious climbing equipment could determine its depth. Getting too close to the edge is dangerous. So scientists only conducted external studies.

It was, of course, possible to measure the diameter of the hole: about 40 meters along the inner edge, 60 along the outer edge. In addition, scientists were convinced that there was also an internal ejection, in other words, something like an explosion - soil fragments were found at a distance of 120 meters from the edge of the crater.

Now it remains to find out why such an ejection from the bowels occurred. Scientists, of course, are considering plausible options. The sinkhole is located in the top 50 meters of soil. There, in the permafrost zone, theoretically, swamp gas can be released. And underground, traps will form for its concentration. However, even with such knowledge, soil scientists - right away - cannot determine why the funnel was formed.

A crater with a diameter of 60 (and according to other sources - up to 80) meters was discovered last week - it was accidentally noticed from a helicopter. All sorts of versions of its origin have already appeared on the Internet. Scientists have to find out whether it is the result of a man-made impact or the fall of a cosmic body.

Some media even suggested that the crater appeared as a result of alien intervention. But to accurately determine the cause of its appearance, you need to take soil samples. According to "", this is not yet possible, since the edges of the funnel are constantly crumbling, and it is dangerous to approach it. The first expedition has already visited the site, and Marina Leibman, chief researcher at the Earth Cryosphere Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about what the scientists saw there.

“There are simply no traces of a person with any kind of equipment here,” she said. “We can assume something fantastic: a hot meteorite fell and everything melted here. But when a meteorite falls, there are traces of charring, that is, high temperature. And "There are no signs of being exposed to high temperatures. There are traces of water flows, there is some accumulation of water."

One of the Internet users who left a comment on the video suggested that the funnel indicates the existence of aliens. One commentator wrote: "It's the Russians testing new weapons of mass destruction."

In the summer of 2014, a large sinkhole was discovered on the Yamal Peninsula, not far from the world’s largest Bovanenkovo ​​oil and gas condensate field. This event aroused great interest not only in the scientific world, but also among ordinary people.

Researchers headed to the mysterious failure on the territory of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and by the end of 2014, three expeditions organized by the Center for Arctic Development visited the natural phenomenon. The expedition, in addition to scientists, included climbers and rescuers. Scientists descended to the bottom of the crater, took soil samples and measured air parameters. Thanks to the data obtained, it was possible to prove that the cause of this sinkhole was global warming.


It turned out that the formation of the crater occurred in the fall of 2013. In the summer of 2012–2013, before the crater appeared, the air temperature in Yamal was 5 degrees above normal. This is a significant deviation for the tundra, where summer temperatures, as a rule, do not exceed + 5-10 degrees. Due to such an anomaly, the permafrost, located at a depth of 20 meters, melted.

When the upper layers of underground permafrost begin to thaw under the influence of high temperatures, the methane gas contained in them is released. It is found in permafrost soils in the form of relict gas hydrates. Methane begins to rise to the surface of the earth through pores and cracks in the earth's crust, but permafrost prevents it from coming out. Under the pressure of compressed gas, the soil literally swells. A giant bubble or hill is formed, which is clearly visible against the background of the flat tundra landscape.

The same thing happened at the site of the formation of the Yamal crater, as evidenced by data obtained from satellite images.


In the photo: space images from the presentation of Marina Leibman

Well, then the melted top layer cannot stand it and breaks out under the onslaught of methane. An explosion occurs, which is evidenced by parts of the soil scattered around the circumference of the crater, as well as at some distance from it.

In the first year after its formation, the Yamal crater was a crater about 35 meters deep, and its diameter on the surface was 40 meters. About a third of the sinkhole was already filled with water in 2014.


More than three years have passed since the formation of the crater in Yamal. At the site of its formation, almost nothing reminds of the giant hole that caused so much noise. It filled with water and looks no different from the numerous tundra lakes on the Yamal Peninsula. The diameter of the new lake is about 80 meters.

But the story with unusual funnels does not end there. Since the formation of the first sinkhole, several more similar natural objects have appeared in different parts of the tundra on the territory of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. In some cases, there are even eyewitnesses who claim that before the formation of the hole, a flash was visible and smoke was observed. All of them are smaller in diameter than the first funnel, but have a similar reason for their appearance - global warming. And the tundra has already begun to respond to the climate changes taking place on our planet.