The Huffington Post
The mystery deepens.
Just days after a
passing helicopter spotted a giant hole in northern Siberia, two more
mysterious holes have been discovered in the region.
Scientists have yet to
explain the first curious crater, and now they have more work on their hands.
One of the newly
discovered holes was spotted by reindeer herders on the Yamal Peninsula, where
the first hole was spotted, The Moscow Times reported. It resembles the first
hole and has a diameter of nearly 50 feet.
Herders also spotted
the second newfound hole. It’s hundreds of miles northeast in the Krasnoyarsk
region and measures about 13 feet across, according to The
Two New Mysterious
Holes Discovered In Siberia
Siberian Times.
Researchers who
examined the first hole will now be dispatched to the other two formations to
collect more data.
Scientists with the
Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of the Earth Cryosphere, which is
leading the investigation, suspect that the first hole formed when melting permafrost
triggered an explosion of methane gas. That theory was bolstered when an icy
lake was found at the bottom of the 230-foot-deep hole.
Yet researchers have
been reluctant to conclude definitively that a reaction spurred by climate
change is what caused the hole.
“Undoubtedly, we need
to study all such formations. It is necessary to be able to predict their
occurrence,” Marina Leibman, the institute’s chief scientist, told
Russian-language news site URA.RU, according to The Siberian Times. “Each new funnel
provides additional information for scientists.”
In the meantime, other
possible explanations have been offered — from a meteor impact to a collapsed
heap of soil-covered ice.
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