Scientists have come close to teaming up with their colleagues from oil and gas companies in the study of gas craters in Yamal. As it became known to "Komsomolskaya Pravda - Yamal", in the last three years alone, two craters formed in 2014 due to a gas release in the area of the Bovanenkovo gas field have grown in diameter up to 60 meters. All in all, in the polar regions of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, as well as in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, there are about ten such giant craters.
As Anton Sinitsky, director of the Scientific Center for Arctic Studies, told the Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent, today it is difficult to predict the appearance of new gas ejection craters, since the genesis of this geological new formation has not yet been studied. And although no new craters were found this year, according to the scientist, it is possible that they may appear by the end of the summer season or in the spring.
- To warn, you need to be able to predict, and to predict, you need to understand their origin. But today the scientific world cannot come to a consensus on this matter, - he commented.
One of the most effective ways to solve the problem is to create a consortium that would combine the efforts of fundamental, applied science.
Fragment of the funnel model created by Gazprom VNIIGAZ LLC in 2014-2015. Photo courtesy of Anton Sinitsky.
Recall that the first of the known craters was discovered by helicopter pilots in the central part of the Yamal Peninsula in the summer of 2014. It was formed 4 km west of the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta main gas pipeline, part of the Yamal-Europe pipeline system. Almost immediately after this discovery, information began to flow about new similar objects in the permafrost zone of Western Siberia, on the Gydan Peninsula. Moreover, there is no information about the presence of such modern “gas funnels” in other land-based Arctic regions of the world. Scientists believe that this is due to the fact that only in Yamal, nature created such unique conditions: sedimentary rocks with a thickness of more than 3000 m are widespread, there is a thick layer of the cryolithozone (150-300 m) with the presence of buried sheet ice and developed "young" heaving mounds …Nowhere in the world are such natural conditions on land observed.
Anton Sinitsky noted that several versions are now being considered regarding the formation and manifestation of craters on the earth's surface. Among them are the destruction of gas hydrates in the permafrost zone, degradation of permafrost under the influence of vertical degassing channels, the existence of increased heat flows over hydrocarbon deposits, degradation of heaving mounds associated with modern climate changes, and others.
Scientists take water samples in one of the Yamal funnels. Screenshot from the video by Anton Sinitsky.
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According to the scientist, it is possible that a complex scientific expedition to the Yerkutinsky crater area will be organized already this fall within the framework of the created consortium of scientists and industrial workers, which will finally shed light on this very difficult issue of the origin of such a geological phenomenon as gas funnels.