Scientists Might Finally Know What Caused These Mysterious Craters in Siberia

Amaze Lab

The mysterious holes began appearing about a decade ago and since then they have baffled scientists as to their cause. Now researchers from the UK and Spain believe they may know what’s going on.

Transcript

00:00This is a massive crater in the Siberian permafrost in Russia.

00:08It's just one of several similar holes that mysteriously began appearing about a decade

00:12ago and since then they have baffled scientists as to their cause.

00:17Now researchers from the UK and Spain believe they may now know what's going on.

00:21These craters through ice and earth are quite large, some measuring around 100 feet wide

00:25and over 160 feet deep.

00:28The holes rest debris that was seemingly ejected from them.

00:32What's more, experts say that when they opened up, they released massive amounts of methane

00:36gas.

00:37This all points to what they call a very niche geological process that starts with warm temperatures

00:41melting permafrost and causing the gas within to expand.

00:45And much like a bike tire exploding after being overinflated, once water from the surface

00:49trickles deeper and deeper into the earth due to climate change, it reaches a salty

00:53layer called cryopeg, which doesn't freeze due to its salinity, which then mixes with

00:57that water and pumps it into the layer below.

01:00That layer just so happens to be composed of crystallized hydrogen bonded water and

01:04methane, which then ruptures and releases the gas, forcing it upwards.

01:09Experts say this usually happens over thousands of years, but global warming is speeding up

01:13the process, causing it to occur in only decades.

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