(VIDEO 3 min. 42 sec.) Can gas bubbles sink ships? – Bermuda Triangle – BBC

What do Siberian craters, seabed “pockmarks,” and the Bermuda Triangle have in common?

Author, Gleb Fedorov, writing for Russia and India Report (RIR) on Russia Beyond the Headlines, generated an article entitled “How the ‘mysterious holes’ formed in the Yamal peninsula,” wherein he quoted Professor Vasily Boboyavlenski on the subject of undersea methane:

August 6, 2014 Gleb Fedorov, RIR
Noted scientists tell RIR that the holes found on the Yamal Peninsula that have sparked so much interest on the internet have no known analogues on land, but could indicate a serious degradation of the permafrost, with global implications.

Any such holes known to science have only previously been discovered at the bottom of the Arctic seas. However, according to Doctor of Technical Sciences Vasily Bogoyavlensky from the Institute of Oil and Gas Issues at the Russian Academy of Sciences, even these have virtually never been studied.

In a practical sense this means that, in the absence of fundamental research, scientists will not know the conditions in which these holes can form and the regions in which they can form.

If they are sufficiently analogous to the holes in the Kara, Pechora, Barents and other seas [in the Arctic Ocean] (these are known by the scientific term ‘pockmarks’) and are formed as a result of natural gas explosions, then this could pose a significant threat.

“If this is the case then it could cause ships to sink, which has happened on more than one occasion abroad,” explained Bogoyavlensky. “In 1995 the Russian vessel Bravenit almost sank in the Pechora Sea as a result of an underwater gas explosion that occurred while a shallow engineering shaft was being drilled.”

According to the scientist, the Arctic seabed has, as far as can be told, the same geological structure as that found on the Yamal Peninsula, with one exception: The ground is covered with a thick layer of permafrost, which is all but absent from the northern seas.

“The majority of what is now the Arctic seabed 10-15,000 years ago was land with permafrost formations. Apart from that, this huge area was covered by a powerful glacier, part of which survives to this day in Greenland,” Bogoyavlensky added.”

. . . . “A significant part of the Paleo-permafrost zone in the Barents and Kara seas has been melting up until the present day. In some areas, the frozen ground has been retained, particularly close to the shore. There is frozen ground in the Kara Sea but this is breaking down.”

Since there are hundreds and thousands of pockmarks on the seabed, this could indicate that further degradation of the permafrost would lead to new holes appearing in the future.

Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines/Russia India Report.

To see a video showing how scientists are monitoring methane and carbon levels in the Arctic Ocean, visit the next page.

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