Mysterious Crater in Siberia

This story takes us to a remote location of the world in Siberia. The Yamal Peninsula is located on the northern edge of Russia and a very strange discovery was made there recently.

A crater has been found that is estimated to be 260 feet in diameter. Russian officials will be sending out scientists to take samples from the large crater, but until more information is acquired, the cause of the crater is unknown. Check out this video of the crater shot from a helicopter:

Here a some snippets from an article about the crater on Yahoo! News regarding some possible causes.

“Experts say it’s probably not the result of a giant meteor crash or a sinkhole, even though Siberia was home to the famous of 1908.”

“The leading theory is that the crater is actually a natural phenomenon known as a ‘pingo.’ A pingo, or hydrolaccolith, occurs when ice pushes up from underneath the ground. In this case, climate change may have caused the ice to melt, resulting in a crater where the earth-covered frost once stood.”

“A number of observers point out that the crater was discovered less than 20 miles from one of Russia’s largest gas fields, leading to speculation that an underground explosion could have been responsible.”

It will be interesting to see what Russian scientists and geologists find during their investigation of the crater. If they do find that natural gas is part of the cause, there could be more craters in the area as most of the Yamal Peninsula sits above huge expanses of gas deposits.

Whatever the cause, this crater is starting to make news headlines across the world as curiosity about the crater’s existence has led to many theories of its origin.