Scientists conducted an initial study of a giant crater in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the video with which was watched on the Web more than two million times, and considered that it is of natural origin and is not the result of any man-made impact or a meteorite fall, the regional government website reports.
The scientific group, sent to the place of the unusual phenomenon on behalf of the governor of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Dmitry Kobylkin, did not reveal any dangerous radiation at the site of the funnel. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the funnel is the result of "some natural phenomenon, which is impossible to define now, without a detailed study," the message says.
Photo: government.yanao.rf
“There is no ground influence here,” the press release quotes Marina Leibman, a member of the group, chief researcher of the Earth Cryosphere Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - A thorough examination showed that there were no traces of the presence of a person with equipment. Assumptions about a hot meteorite are also groundless, then there should be traces of charring."
“At this place there was a release of some material from the bowels of the earth,” the scientist says. “I don’t think it was accompanied by an explosion, because it is supposed to be exposed to high temperatures. This is a purely mechanical release, which most likely occurred due to an increase in pressure during freezing and a change in the volume of a certain cavity in which there were reserves of bog gas."
The diameter of the funnel along the inner edge is about 40 meters, on the outer edge - 60, and the fragments of the ejection that occurred are observed at a distance of 120 meters, said another participant in the study, senior researcher of the State Institution of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug "Scientific Center for the Study of the Arctic" Andrei Plekhanov.
In order to accurately determine the depth, specialists with serious climbing equipment are needed, the specialist noted, warning that coming close in the funnel is life-threatening, since the edges of the formed embankment are constantly collapsing.
Promotional video:
The press service of the head of the region also hastened to reassure that in the case of this funnel we are definitely not talking about a man-made impact or a meteorite fall. “There is no talk of an explosion as such either. Scientists are more inclined towards the wording “burst like a bubble,” the press service told Interfax.
"Scientists say that the funnel is completely safe for the population and does not interfere with gas production in the Okrug, especially considering that there are no industrial facilities in the vicinity, at least for tens of kilometers," the source said.
The video of the giant funnel appeared on the Internet on July 10. In the description of the video, its author, who removed the funnel during a helicopter flight, reported that it was formed 30 kilometers from the Bovanenskoye field, and its size is so huge that “you can go down into it on several Mi-8s without fear of anything. hurt."
The video shows that vegetation surrounds the funnel, and you can see that the soil around it was thrown out, as usually happens in an explosion. At the same time, it is noted that no survey work was carried out in this area.