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From
the comments -
“The
way craters are blasting this year... I don't know but... its too
fast too strong... the dragon is definitely not at sleep anymore...
how fast will he awaken? Maybe this year... next year... next decade.
We humans are crazy... awakening the dragon.”
Pedro
Maia, Hobarth
'Big bang' and 'pillar of fire' as latest of two new craters forms this week in the Arctic
02
July 2017
Local
reindeer herder witnessed the tundra explosion that led to birth of
new hole in river.
New
funnel in Yerkuta is reported to be 8 meters in diameters and about
20 meters deep. Picture: Alexandr Sokolov
Scientists
have located two fresh craters formed on Yamal peninsula this year,
with the latest exploding on 28 June with the eruption picked up by
new seismic sensors specifically designed to monitor such events, The
Siberian Times can disclose.
First
pictures of the large craters - or funnels as experts call them - are
shown here, and add to four other big holes found in recent years and
examined by experts, plus dozens of tiny ones spotted by satellite.
The
formation of both craters involved an explosion followed by fire,
evidently signs of the eruption of methane gas pockets under the
Yamal surface.
People
in Seyakha village heard a 'loud explosion-like bang' then saw a fire
and clouds of black smoke, according to reports.
Deputy
director of the Oil and Gas Research Institute, Moscow, Professor
Vasily Bogoyavlensky said: 'We heard the news (about the new crater)
from a friend who saw a flame of fire and then a rising pillar
of smoke.'
The
head of Seyakha village, Igor Okotetto, confirmed he gad been told
about the explosion.
Map shows previously known funnels, according to professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky: F1 - famous Yamal funnel some 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. Other pictures show new funnel that formed on 28 June 2017. Pictures: The Siberian Times, Yamal Region
Reindeer
herder Mikhail Okotetto gave details of the explosion to Vesti-Yamal
television of the explosion by phone, evidently citing another herder
close to the event.
On
28 June 'there was short but mighty fire' around 10.25 am, he said.
It
was registered by seismic sensors as being timed around 35 minutes
later.
'It
happened some 35 to 40 kilometres north-west of Seyakha,' he said on
local TV. 'Reindeer herder Yakov Vengo has a camp there.
'There
was a hill not far from the camp, and it exploded.
'There
were fire, smoke and huge chunks of soil 'flying out' of the
epicentre.
'The
hill has vanished.'
New funnel in Seyakha. Pictures: Yamal Region
The
account of an exploding hill is consistent with the scientific theory
that sees the craters as mainly - but not only - formed by exploding
pingo mounds.
Helicopter
reconnaissance of the site shows a crater appearing in a river, so it
assumed the 'hill' was beside or abutting the river.
The
crater is some 30-35 kilometres is around 100 km of Russia's new
state-of-the-art Arctic port of Sabetta.
It
is in an area of crater-shaped lakes.
Seyakha funnel. Pictures: Yamal Region
The
second new funnel is some eight metres in diameter and 20 metres deep
and first images show a spectacular classic crater-shape.
Renideer
herders are reported to have seen 'an explosion and flames of fire'
when snow still lay on the ground this year, but the exact timing of
the eruption has not been established.
This
new funnel has been examined by a group of scientists led by Dr
Alexandr Sokolov, who found the funnel on 24 June during an annual
expedition for long-term monitoring of terrestrial ecosystems of
Yamal.
A
video of the crater was released to The Siberian Times by Dr Sokolov,
deputy head of the Arctic Research station of the Institute of Plant
and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
VIDEO
below shows two new craters, with the latest of them (second part of
the video) forming on 28 June 2017. Pictures and video: Alexandr
Sokolov, Yamal Region
A
mound of land along edges of the funnel confirms the fact of the
explosion, Alexandr Sokolov said.
'This
plot of land was absolutely flat just two years ago. A year ago in
2016 it bulged and we could see that soil has cracked there.'
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.
The
Scientific Centre for Arctic Research said its sensors picked up the
latest explosion.
'On
28 June at 11.00.13 am local time, the seismic network on Yamal
recorded a seismic event, probably associated with the release of
gas,' said a statement from the institute.
'The
oscillations are registered by two seismic stations located in
Sabetta settlement and in the area of the Bovanenkovskoye gas field.'
The
sensors have been established amid fears that the erupting funnels
can damage key industrial infrastructure.
F1, the Yamal peninsula crater that was registered in summer 2017. Pictures: Vasily Bogoyavlensky
The
craters are believed to form when underground methane gas - trapped
by permafrost for thousands of years - is released due to the warming
climate in this Arctic region and erupts inside pingo mounds.
Scientists
say several thousand pingos, many filled with gas, could
'explode' forming giant craters in this region.
Pingos
are dome-shaped mounds over a core of ice.
At
least ten are known to have exploded in Siberia in recent years
forming large craters, of which four have been closely examined by
scientists.
The
largest, 35 metres deep and 40 metres in diameter, is close to the
Bovanenkovskoye deposit.
One
sensor can analyse seismic processes non-stop in 200 km
distance around it.
Sabetta
port is being built as part of a $27 billion project by Yamal LNG on
the Ob River estuary to export 16.5 million tons of liquefied gas
from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field.
The
accounts of explosions creating the recent craters is consistent with
testimony about a bang and 'glow in the sky' seen 100 km from a
remote crater on the Taimyr peninsula in Krasnoyarsk region. This
blowout was in 2013, it is believed.
Scientist
Dr Vladimir Epifanov, the sole leading expert to so far visit the
site, said: 'There is verbal information that residents of nearby
villages - at a distance of 70-100 km - heard a sound like an
explosion, and one of them watched a clear glow in the sky.'
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