Taking methane measurements through ice in Siberia.
Structure of gas hydrates
A working theory: “Gas hydrates are key.”
The main element – and this is our working theory to explain the Yamal crater – was a release of gas hydrates. It turned out that there are gas hydrates both in the deep layer which on peninsula is several hundred meters down, and on the layer close to the surface,’ said scientist Vladimir Potapov.
Gas – notably methane – is trapped in the frozen hydrates under the permafrost and beneath some oceans.
‘There might be another factor, or factors, that could have provoked the air clap. Each of the factors added up and gas exploded, leading to appearance of the crater. ‘The crater is located on the intersection of two tectonic faults. Yamal peninsula is seismically quiet, yet the area of the crater we looked into has quite an active tectonic life’, Potapov said.
Crucially, the surface ice and upper layers of permafrost were exposed to ‘a much warmer summer than usual’, as Tyumen scientist Marina Leibman earlier noted. Igor Yeltsov, the Trofimuk Institute’s deputy head, stressed:
. . . . We checked magnetic and radiation backgrounds, and found no abnormalities there,’ said Oleg Kushnarenko, chief engineer on the four and a half day mission.
Potapov stressed the need for further study.
‘We have to continue works by all possible means. We all have to keep suggesting hypotheses and testing them, because the crater itself is an incredibly interesting from the scientific point of view, and secondly because things like this crater can make a strong impact on the development of Yamal’s infrastructure.
Source: Siberian Times.
