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Scientists Descend Into Russia's Mysterious Siberian Crater For the First Time - Video
Remember those huge, that carved out the Earth seemingly overnight in Siberia, Russia?
A research team was finally able to descend into one of the craters for the first time, thanks to Siberia's frigid weather, and now, scientists from the group said they hope the expedition will finally answer questions about what caused the holes to form.
High temperatures in the largely uninhabited Yamal Peninsula, where the holes are located, usually don't creep above 0 degrees this time of year, and surprisingly, that provides an advantage for the research team, according to Vladimir Pushkarev, director of the Russian Center of Arctic Exploration.
The freezing temperatures , RT News reports, providing a stable foundation for the crew to rappel down the side and into the bottom. "We managed to go down into the funnel, all was successful," said Pushkarev. "We used climbing equipment, and it is easier to do this in winter, than in summer, with the ground now hard."
The Siberian Times down into the opening, before touching foot on a frozen lake that scientists believe is something like 34 feet deep. Once there, the team collected samples from the frozen lake, the crater and the air inside the crater and ran radiolocation tests to analyze the composition of the earth.
Scientists will analyze the samples in the coming months and said they hope to have some sort of solid answer on the origins of the crater by the time their next expedition begins in April 2015.
"As of now we don't see anything dangerous in the sudden appearance of such holes, but we've got to study them properly to make absolutely sure we understand the nature of their appearance and don't need to be afraid about them," Pushkarev told the Siberian Times.
When the first hole was spotted back in July, theories swirled about the origins of the crater.
Dr. Chris Fogwill, a polar scientist at the University of New South Wales, told the Sydney Morning Herald that he believed . According to Fogwill, a pingo is just a large chunk of ice that forms into a small hillside. Eventually, that ice can push through the earth, and when it melts, leave behind a large hole, similar to the one discovered in Siberia.
Others thought that the holes could've formed from gas explosions from nearby gas fields, or even an asteroid impact.
But now, scientists believe that subterranean heating from tectonic areas deep beneath Yamal Peninsula may have ignited gas hydrates located throughout the geological record in the area, causing an explosion that left behind the craters, Vladimir Potapov, a scientists, told the Siberian Times.
At this point, though, no theory can be ruled out until research at the crater concludes in the coming months.
Stunning beauty: Scientists descend into mysterious 'end of world' Siberian craterby RT
Source: http://www.weather.com/news/science/enviro...crater-20141113
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Scientists Descend Into Russia's Mysterious Siberian Crater For the First Time - Video |
