From the comments -
"The
IPCC's scientists said the permafrost would be stable for another 50
to 100 years. And now, the months of hell are opening at the End of
the World (Yamal) ! Conlusion 1 : global warming is speeding up and
the IPCC forcasts are too optimistic. We have to act much faster than
planned. Conclusion 2: We better start thinking hard for a solution
for the thawing/exploding permafrost or we'll all be globally cooked
much sooner than expected."
Warnings of new Arctic explosions at some 700-plus sites in Yamal due to thawing permafrost
04
July 2017
Scientists
rush to site of latest tundra eruption - which formed a crater 50
metres deep - amid fears for homes and key industrial sites.
New
river funnel that formed on 28 June 2017. Picture: Yamal Region
Startling
details have emerged of last week's methane gas blowout on an Arctic
riverbank: a sudden and deafening bang from a large explosion of the
ground near a reindeer encampment, fire shooting into the sky and
raging for several minutes from the eruption, huge chunks of charred
permafrost blown out of the ground, and a deep, eerie crater forming,
some 50 metres deep which immediately filled with water.
Reindeer
and dogs fled in fright. Sand and grass was blackened by the intense
heat of the eruption which was described as 'a flame of fire and then
a rising pillar of smoke'.
Scientists
rushed to the scene on the Yamal Peninsula to examine the site in the
immediate aftermath of the explosion, amid expert warnings that many
can be expected as a warming climate leads to thawing permafrost and
the release of potent methane gas which has lain frozen under the
surface for thousands of years.
The
ground is 'swelling' at more than 700 sites on Yamal - known to
locals as 'the end of the world' - have been identified as
potential explosion sites, but these are seen as the tip of an
iceberg.
Many
are hillocks or knolls, some are pingos.
A reindeer herder tells about witnessing formation of a new crater. Pictures: Yamal Region
Professor
Vasily Bogoyavlensky, Russia's leading expert on this
recently-noticed phenomenon of blowout craters, rushed from his Black
Sea vacation to examine the debris.
The
explosion and the resulting hole near Seyakha village is the latest
of a dozen or so substantial known craters to form in Arctic Russia,
mainly on Yamal, since 2014.
Mikhail
Okotetto told TV channel Yamal-region of a fellow herder who was
close to the eruption.
'The
reindeer fled to the south, but he had newborn calf (in his hands),'
he said. 'So the reфndeer and dogs, all ran away, and he was just
left there standing with the newborn cal.'
Two
new craters formed on the Yamal peninsula. Video courtesy Aleksandr
Sokolov and Yamal Region
Previously known funnels, according to Professor Bogoyavlensky: F1 - famous Yamal hole 30 kilometres from Bovanenkovo, F2 - recently detected crater 10 kilometres to the south from Bovanenkovo, F3 - crater located 90 kilometres from Antipayuta village, F4 - crater located near Nosok village, north of Krasnoyarsk region, near Taimyr Peninsula. Picture: The Siberian Times
Dr
Anton Sinitsky, director of the Arctic Research Centre, Salekhard,
admitted to being startled by the force of the eruption.
'I
am still slightly shocked,' he said.
It
was 'beyond any doubt that there was an explosion because charred
sand and charred grass are visible by the funnel'.
He
expressed the fear that such funnels 'can pop up anywhere' in
permafrost Yamal.
Dr Anton Sinitsky. Picture: Yamal Region
Alexander
Mazharov, deputy governor of Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region, said:
'It is very important for us also to know what to do because such an
eruption can occur anywhere.
'It
might hit a technical facility, a residential settlement, or a linear
object (a pipeline or railway).'
Yamal
has the biggest concentration of natural gas fields on the planet,
and these can be threatened by exploding ground.
Dr
Bogoyavlensky, deputy director of the Oil and Gas Research Institute,
Moscow, sought to use an echo sounder to measure the depth of the
submerged crater - but it was too deep.
He
resorted to casting a fishing line into the water, and it is close to
50 metres deep.
Strong
degassing of the subsoil is occurring in the bloated and thawing
tundra, he said.
 |
Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky interrupted holiday and rushed to check the new crater. Pictures: Yamal Region
In
other places it can seep through the surface, but here the unevenly
frozen surface layers can mean pockets of methane collect with
explosive force.
Such
explosions can scatter a large tonnage of rocks hundreds of metres
away from the blowhole, said one Yamal report.
'Actually
(degassing) is happening in all countries of the world, onshore and
offshore,' said Dr Bogoyavlensky. 'Strong degassing is occurring in
the Arctic.
'But
what we have just seen is a drop in the ocean of this global
degassing of subsoil.'
Warnings of new Arctic explosions at some 700-plus sites in Yamal due to thawing permafrost. Pictures: Yamal Region
Seismic
sensors timed the explosion at 11am on 28 June some 30
kilometres north west of the remote village of Seyakha.
The
site is around 100 km of Russia's new state-of-the-art Arctic port of
Sabetta.
A
second new crater - which exploded into being earlier this year - was
also located this month by a group of scientists led by Dr Aleksandr
Sokolov, deputy head of the ecological research and development
station of the Institute of Ecology of Plants and Animals, in
Labytnangi, Tyumen region.
A
mound of land along edges of the funnel confirms the fact of the
explosion, he said.
'This
plot of land was absolutely flat just two years ago,' he said.
'A
year ago in 2016 it bulged and we could see that soil has cracked
there.'
A second crater that formed earlier in June 2017. Pictures: Aleksandr Sokolov
It
is believed the eruption was in the early part of this year.
'The
Nenets native people told us they saw fire in winter 2017, but it
might mean January to March or April.
In
other words, it exploded when snow was still lying.'
This
crater is around 30 km east of the Yerkut scientific station,
and some 230 km north of Salekhard.
New
river crater formed on 28 June 2018. Pictures: Yamal Region
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