Written by Vedika Pathania, a second-year student.

Greg Fiske, a geographer at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, was in Siberia in 2014 during an exceptionally hot spell — about 90 degrees Fahrenheit — when he heard a bizarre news report. Pilots flying over the Yamal Peninsula (located in northwest Siberia, Russia ) saw a massive crater in the earth that seemed to have developed out of nowhere, in the same area where Fiske and his colleague Sue Natali were working.

Since then, additional similar craters have been discovered in two regions: the Yamal and Gyda peninsulas. They’re part of Russia’s Siberian tundra, a vast expanse of territory marked by a layer of perennially frozen earth just beneath the surface. And, as scientists have discovered, the holes, which are around 65 feet across when they first appear, don’t appear silently. Land in Siberia bubbles up like slow-moving lava until it cracks, leaving behind a depression known as a gas emission crater.

Why and how are these being caused?

The exact cause of these enormous gaps is unknown. However, many experts believe climate change is to blame.

According to a new study published in the Geosciences Journal this week, significant accumulations of methane gas owing to climate change in the permafrost may have caused explosions in the Russian region, which resulted in massive craters. The research also says that a 3D model of the crater and a large hollow underneath it generated during its thawing from below was constructed for the first time as a consequence of aerial photographs from inside the crater with a drone.

Scientists discovered that methane gas builds up in a hole in the ice, causing a mound to form at ground level, using these instruments. As the greenhouse gas concentration rises, the mound expands until it explodes, ejecting ice and other debris and leaving behind the huge crater. Warming in the Arctic area is driving permafrost deterioration, according to scientists. Permafrost is nature’s technique of storing surplus greenhouse gases under the earth’s surface. However, when temperatures increase, permafrost melts, increasing gas emissions into the atmosphere and speeding up the climate change process.

Despite the fact that these craters have formed in a sparsely inhabited area, they represent a threat to Indigenous peoples as well as oil and gas infrastructure. The landscape’s dramatic alterations might prove harmful and bring us back to the topic of climate change and if enough is being done to tackle it.

Key-points summary

• Pilots flying over the Yamal Peninsula saw a massive crater in the earth that developed out of nowhere
• Since then, additional similar craters have been discovered in two regions: the Yamal and Gyda peninsulas.
• According to a new study published in the Geosciences Journal this week, significant accumulations of methane gas owing to climate change in the permafrost may have caused explosions in the Russian region, which resulted in massive craters.
• Warming in the Arctic area is driving permafrost deterioration, according to scientists. Permafrost is nature’s technique of storing surplus greenhouse gases under the earth’s surface.
• Despite the fact that these craters have formed in a sparsely inhabited area, they represent a threat to Indigenous peoples as well as oil and gas infrastructure.

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