Crateras na Sibéria

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Russian scientists say climate change to blame for mysterious Siberia craters

“We have just learnt that in Yakutia, new information has emerged about a giant crater 1km [0.6 miles] in diameter,”

All of the craters have been discovered in the remote, energy-rich Yamalo-Nenetsky region in north-western Siberia.

“When they appear the craters are empty, and little by little they fill up with water. In the space of two or three years they become lakes and it is difficult to study them.”

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New explanation for Siberia’s mystery craters

Carolyn Ruppel, chief of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Gas Hydrates Project, told EarthSky this week (March 9, 2015) that an explosive release of methane is not a likely explanation for the craters.

She and other scientists are calling on a simpler explanation, related to mounds of earth-covered ice in the Arctic and subarctic known as pingos.

National Geographic reported on February 27:

A pingo is a plug of ice that forms near the surface over time and has a small mound or hill on top.

When an ice plug melts rapidly — as many have been, thanks to unseasonably warm temperatures in Siberia over the past year — it can cause part of the ground to collapse, forming a crater.