Climate change, human activities: do craters in Siberia and the far north pose a threat to our planet?
For several years now, mysterious craters have appeared in the polar regions, primarily in Siberia. Although scientists still have not been able to fully solve their mystery, there are several explanations for their origin. And aliens have nothing to do with it.
Gaps in the tundra
The Yakut crater Batagayka, nicknamed the “gateway to hell,” is almost a kilometer long, while its depth is about a hundred meters. It represents a symbol of new geological phenomena that are multiplying in this region. Today there is a plain or hills in front of you, and tomorrow there is a huge gap, which becomes larger over time.
Siberian craters attracted the attention of experts who analyzed the causes of their appearance and put forward their theories on this score.
As for Batagayka, some spoke of "yarrow": we are talking about alternating layers of soil and ice. As the temperature rises, the ice melts, which leads to regular soil collapses.
If you believe an often-voiced theory, this is due to the bubbles of gas (mainly methane) that are contained in the frozen soil and in some cases form noticeable hills. As it warms, the gas bursts out, creating craters that are often explosive. In 2013, one such explosion was heard at a distance of 100 kilometers, and an eyewitness spoke of a flash in the sky.
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“We need to understand which hills are a threat and which are not,” says Alexey Titovsky, director of the department for science and innovation in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
All the hypotheses put forward boil down to the fact that the main reason for the formation of craters is climate warming, which has an increasingly significant and frightening effect on the permafrost (almost constantly frozen soil in the polar regions). According to the latest official data, there are up to 7,000 bubbles in Siberia that are ready to explode.
Dips in America's polar regions
Siberia is not the only case. In the extreme north of Canada and Alaska, craters and other phenomena associated with the melting of permafrost are also found. Two years ago, the lake near Fort McPherson was partially shallowed by a collapse of the banks. In two hours, 30,000 cubic meters of water came out of it.
In Alaska, this issue is of serious concern to the authorities, since permafrost occupies 90% of the region's territory. Cities, villages and infrastructure are under threat. "Roads have to be repaired more and more often because of the permafrost," Jeff Currey, a local transportation engineer, told the Air Force. Another example of the consequences of this phenomenon: in October, the airport located near the city of Bethel was forced to close the runway.
Bubbles on the ocean floor
Recently, a Norwegian expedition discovered hundreds of craters at the bottom of the Barents Sea, between Russia and Norway. Traces of methane bubbles are not really rare in this hydrocarbon-rich region, but their number and size are surprising.
The group of scientists documenting the discovery writes about "a large number of craters and hills that are associated with large-scale methane emissions."
Although there is no permafrost, similar mechanisms come into play. During the last ice age, bubbles from gas fields were trapped under ice. The disappearance of the ice sheet resulted in the concentration of bubbles in the swellings, which eventually burst, forming craters.
The entire process takes thousands of years, but could accelerate amid the current melting of polar ice caps. Be that as it may, we do not know if the methane released in this way can reach the atmosphere and contribute to climate warming.
The methane bubbles on the ocean floor may be part of the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, a geographic area where ships and planes faced navigation difficulties or disappeared altogether. But so far no concrete evidence has been presented.
Anthrax, mammoths and climate warming
Melting permafrost and methane bubbles, of course, cannot be called joyful events, but craters also have certain advantages. The “gateway to hell” may be a gateway to our planet's past: the collapse opens up access to old layers of soil that can be studied by geologists and climatologists, which will provide information about the changes at the end of the previous ice age.
In addition, we can count on the discovery of animal remains: the permafrost has already given us several bodies of mammoths, which delighted specialists.
At the same time, many are concerned that the gradual thawing of the soil could release deadly bacteria and viruses. Last year, in northern Russia, a 12-year-old child and two dozen deer contracted anthrax, the last human case of which was reported in the region 75 years ago.
However, the impact on the climate is of greatest concern. A study three years ago showed that melting permafrost could release 120 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which would account for 5.7% of human emissions in the most pessimistic IPCC scenario. In terms of temperature, that would mean 0.29 degrees of warming, enough to bury the optimistic plans of the Paris climate agreement.
Moreover, the scenario does not take into account methane, whose greenhouse effect is much stronger than that of carbon dioxide, and whose potential climate impacts are seriously underestimated.
Thus, Siberian craters and other manifestations of melting permafrost are becoming new alarming signals of climate warming and the need to take urgent measures.
Jean-Paul Fritz