(VIDEO 1:08 MIN.) Scientists descend into the largest (60m outside diameter) Siberian crater under safety of solidly frozen winter ice.
Field examination of the Siberian Craters was unsafe during the arctic summer.
The Arctic Ocean has been impacted more severely by a global warming trend, due to ocean currents, than the Southern (Antarctic) Ocean, according to this article, despite the pause in rate of warming due to low sunspot activity (the Maunder Minimum) since approximately 2000.
This arctic warming trend has added an element of danger to those who depend on solid permafrost for safety in the northern regions of the earth, and scientists have a heightened need for caution in their field work.
Respected Moscow scientist Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky has called for ‘urgent’ investigation of the new phenomenon amid safety fears.
In the interview by The Siberian Times of Professor Bogoyavlensky, the professor spoke of the dangers impeding investigation of the craters.
‘For example, you all remember the magnificent shots of the Yamal crater in winter, made during the latest expedition in November 2014. But do you know that Vladimir Pushkarev, director of the Russian Centre of Arctic Exploration, was the first man in the world who went down the crater of gas emission?
‘More than this, it was very risky, because no one could guarantee there would not be new emissions.’
Source: SiberianTimes.com.
At the time of the crater’s discovery, in July, 2014, Nature.com reported:
To confirm what caused the crater, Plekhanov says that another visit is needed to check the methane concentration in air trapped in its walls. That will be difficult, however: “Its rims are slowly melting and falling into the crater,” Plekhanov says. “You can hear the ground falling, you can hear the water running, it’s rather spooky.”
Source: Nature.com.
Under relative safety of winter permafrost freezing, scientists from the Russian Centre of Arctic Exploration made their descent into the first-discovered and largest crater, climbing 10.5 meters to its base, in November, 2014.
Following this descent into the crater, scientists, scouring satellite images, not only discovered more craters, but also came upon a clue that seemed to tie the crater appearances together: A pingo was visible on each crater site, prior to formation of the crater.
See next page to find out how pingos, which occur only in a permafrost landscape, provide information on geologic and atmospheric conditions, on Earth and on Mars.
