The first scientific report on the methane gas explosion pits in Siberia has just been released
Russian scientists have just published the first scientific report on the mysterious pits that have recently been discovered on the Yamal Peninsula and other parts of northern Siberia. The pits are in a remote part of Siberia, and the scientists were only able to visit one pit (shown above).
The Russian scientists came to several stunning conclusions:
1. They believe that these pits are a completely new terrestrial landform that has never before been observed in Siberia or elsewhere on the earth. This implies that some entirely new earth process or activity is now occurring in Siberia.
2. They hypothesize that the crater and its surrounding debris field was created when large quantities of methane gas were released from organic rich horizons in the underground permafrost. Eventually enough methane was released that gas pressures in the subsurface became high enough to blast out a crater and eject debris up to 100 m from the rim of the central pit.
3. They conclude that warmer ground temperatures in central Siberia are responsible for destabilizing the permafrost and are causing the release of large amounts of methane gas from the frozen sediments, resulting in over-pressurized zones rich in methane gas that eventually blast their way out of the permafrost.
This is bad news because methane is an even more powerful greenhouse gas then CO2, and Arctic permafrost contains a staggering “1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon” much of which would be released as methane if the permafrost becomes destabilized.
If warming the permafrost is what is causing the Siberian methane gas eruptions, then additional warming of the permafrost will cause additional methane gas eruptions. And unless a successful geoengineering program is started soon, Siberia and the rest of the Arctic are on track to see 10°-20° of additional warming by the year 2100.
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