Investigators probe mystery of giant Siberian sinkhole
A team of investigators has been despatched to a remote area of Siberia to investigate reports of a giant sinkhole.
Aerial footage of the sinkhole, apparently taken from a helicopter, has prompted media speculation as to its origins, with everything from a meteorite strike (possible) to an underground explosion caused by a gas buildup in the permafrost (probable) to a UFO landing (nope) being posited.
The sinkhole - estimated at 80m in diameter with depth unknown - is located on the remote Yamal peninsula (the name roughly translates to 'end of the world') close to the Bovanenkovo gas field, according to the Siberian Times.
A team of scientists travelling to investigate the phenomenon is due to arrive today, the Times reported.
"The expedition organised by the Yamal authorities includes two experts from the Centre for the Study of the Arctic and one from Cryosphere Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences," the Siberia Times said.
"They plan to take samples of soil, air and water from the scene.
"They will be accompanied by a specialist from the Emergencies Ministry."
An Energy Ministry spokesperson told the Siberia Times that it was too early to say what had cause the formation of the hole.
'We can definitely say that it is not a meteorite," the spokesperson however said.
"No details yet."
The Siberian Times also quoted a scientist from the Tyumen State Oil and Gas University (TSOGU) who speculated that the crater was a symptom of global warming and had been formed by a mixture of water, salt and gas igniting an underground explosion.
"
Gas accumulated in ice mixed with sand beneath the surface, and that this was mixed with salt - some 10,000 years ago this area was a sea," the Times quoted Anna Kurchatova of the university's
Sub-Arctic Scientific Research Centre as saying.
"Global warming, causing an 'alarming' melt in the permafrost, released gas causing an effect like the popping of a Champagne bottle cork," Kurchatova suggested.
