Massive Craters Are Mysteriously Emerging in Siberian Permafrost — and Experts May Know Why
Deep inside a remote peninsula sitting on the Arctic Circle, climate change is hurting the landscape. In a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, scientists discovered mysterious wounds lacerated into the icy grounds of the northwestern Siberia’s Yamal and Gydan Peninsulas in the Arctic. The edges of these wounds seem to be puffing out methane farts, thanks to the warming of the planet. Just like blisters, these wounds, a.k.a. craters, are opening up in the ground, and according to the scientists, the reason is a colossal, violent force churning within the ice.
The drama has been going on ever since 2014. At some point during this year, some helicopter pilots passing overhead, around 26 miles from the Bovanenkovo gas field on the Yamal Peninsula, noticed the first ever crater materializing on a patch of unfrozen permafrost in the region. Investigation revealed that the boundary of this crater was bleeding out an ejecta that consisted of high concentrations of methane, the potent greenhouse gas, and a hydrocarbon. And although “climate change” was identified as one of the potential causes, the development of this crater lingered as a mystery for years to come.
When scientists visited the same region almost a decade later, the landscape left them even more unnerved. The unfrozen portions of the thick permafrost seemed to be punctuated by dozens of such craters, each crater with a common backstory: explosion. Many possibilities were considered, from meteors crashing to alien spaceships, but everything was ruled out. What remained was the possibility of an astronomical explosion. The clues to these explosions led scientists towards the good old villain: climate change. Of course, the area’s unusual geology was a big factor too, which caused these wounds in Arctic ice.
Permafrost is a thick layer of ice that blankets the layer underneath the surface of the ground. This layer is packed with sleeping microbes and various gases that become trapped and frozen in the water crystals. As climate change causes the temperatures to rise, the permafrost starts thawing. As it melts, the dormant microbes wake up, belching out copious amounts of methane gas, and the water crystals start scurrying restlessly. As this layer goes hanky-panky with shock and agony, the “cryopegs” sitting below become agitated.
Cryopegs, also called “methane hydrates,” are little ponds of high salinity water sandwiched between permafrost and thick layers of clay and soil. With methane gas trapped inside the water crystals, this layer remains stable at high pressure and low temperature. But as the permafrost layer above becomes disturbed by melting surface ice, it can lead to destabilization of these ponds, as a result of which, they start spitting enormous quantities of methane. When the pressure created by this gas becomes stronger than the strength of the ground above, cracks start to burst open in the ground. Over the decades, these fractures trigger explosions, causing these giant, mysterious craters to blow up.
Ana Morgado, a study author and chemical engineer at the University of Cambridge, shared with CNN that the process is just like “pumping up a tire.” In a 2018 study published in Scientific Reports, scientists also compared these holes with “cryovolcanoes,” volcanoes that eject ice instead of lava. Although the methane produced collectively by these craters isn’t sufficient to warm the planet, it surely is a “terrifying sign that the Arctic is changing.” And as for now, the mystery remains only partially solved. There are still pieces of the puzzle that need to be sought and put together to decode the entire story.
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