It was extraordinary when subterranean gases opened up a massive hole in the ground in Russia’s Arctic, the latest natural phenomenon to affect the fast-warming region amid a record-setting summer.

    It was extraordinary when subterranean gases opened up a massive hole in the ground in Russia’s Arctic, the latest natural phenomenon to affect the fast-warming region amid a record-setting summer.

Russian scientists discovered the 50-meter crater on an expedition to the Yamal Peninsula above the Arctic Circle in July, according to state television. It was dubbed Crater 17 as 16 similar objects have been discovered in Siberia’s extreme northwest since the phenomenon was first observed in 2014.

The Gizmodo science news website nicknamed the vast hole a “pit to hell.”

    “It was making noises. It was like something alive,” Yevgeny Chuvilin, one of Russia’s leading permafrost experts who took part in the expedition, said of Crater 17 to The New York Times.

    Researchers believe that the craters are formed when long-frozen earth known as permafrost begins to melt and release trapped methane gas, according to Popular Mechanics. The methane creates bulges on Earth’s surface known as pingos, which eventually explode and leave behind craters.

The trapped methane “goes off like a bottle of champagne,” Chuvilin told NYT.

    According to the NYT, there are two working theories on what causes the pressure to rise enough to lead to an explosion: deep-seated frozen methane reverting to its gaseous state or thawing surface permafrost releasing methane deposits.

Related Topics: extraordinary    Russian