Scientists in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug have completed an expedition to the site of a giant crater in the Bovanenkovskoye field.
The press service of the Governor of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug informs that this expedition was the fourth in a row, it was organized to conduct express research and document the latest changes in the funnel.
It was possible to find out that the funnel, as predicted by scientists, began to fill with water: over the winter and spring, it filled ten meters, this process continues.
According to scientists, most of the round-shaped tundra lakes on the Yamal Peninsula have the same origin as the Yamal funnel.
Earlier it was reported that in the summer of 2014, not far from the Bovanenkovo field, a huge crater of unknown origin was discovered. Its diameter along the inner edge is about 40 meters, along the outer edge - 60 meters, the depth is still unknown.
Vasily Bogoyavlensky, Deputy Director for Research at the Institute of Oil and Gas Problems, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Technical Sciences, notes that most of the round-shaped tundra lakes on the Yamal Peninsula are of thermogas origin, like the Yamal funnel.
Promotional video:
One of the Yamal lakes
The process takes place in areas where paleo-frozen ground and underground ice exist. In connection with global warming, heaving mounds are formed in these territories.
Vasily Bogoyavlensky: “These hills, reaching up to two kilometers in diameter and many tens of meters in height, look very exotic against the background of the tundra flat terrain. Gradually, these objects under the influence of high temperatures are destroyed and form craters. However, a year ago, in connection with the formation of the Yamal crater, we learned that they can also explode."