Canada Journal – News of the World Articles and videos to bring you the biggest Canadian news stories from across the country every day
Mysterious ‘gigantic’ hole in remote region spotted by helicopters over gas-rich Yamal peninsula.
The striking puncture in the earth is believed to be up to 80 metres wide but its depth is not estimated yet. A scientific team has been sent to investigate the hole and is due to arrive at the scene on Wednesday.
The cause of its sudden appearance in Yamal – its name means the ‘end of the world’ in the far north of Siberia – is not yet known, though one scientific claim is that global warming may be to blame.
The Siberian Emergency Ministry has officially ruled out a meteorite, but they offer no explanation of what it could be. Sub-Arctic Scientific Research Centre associate Anna Kurchatova believes the sinkhole was caused by a toxic mix of water, salt, sand, and gas under the Earth’s surface, causing an explosion, and thus the sinkhole. She blames global warming for the mixture, as the area where the crater exists was once a sea.
The Yamal peninsula is a major oil and gas bearing region for Russia, and Kurchatova believes a subterranean explosion is potentially devastating for that reason. Oddly enough, the hole is believed to be roughly two years old, and first thought an Internet hoax.
Soil, air, and water samples are being taken from the scene to study the phenomenon. Other scientists are backing up Kurchatova’s claim the sinkhole is the effect of global warming. University of New South Wales polar scientist Dr Chris Fogwill believes it’s something he calls a”Pingo”, where underground ice blocks melt away due to temperatures rising in periglacial regions like Siberia.
Agencies/Canadajournal
More likely a collapsing pingo, not global warming, but due to that strange phenomena called “summer”.
“Pingos are only found in areas with permafrost where freezing and thawing change the landscape dramatically. Essentially, pingos are formed when lakes drain. In the summer months, the residual water seeps below the lake bed or the soil. When the winter returns, the ground starts to freeze and pushes inwards against the permafrost while the water below the soil starts to push up. Like muffins baking in a tin, they have nowhere else to go but up.”
It’s summer not global warming.
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2…
http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/rech-s…
Great article in Forbes today about CO2 causing CAGW being debunked. You ought to read it!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/pe…