Siberia's Mysterious Craters: A Deep-Earth Theory That Changes Everything
More than a decade after the first holes appeared in Western Siberia's permafrost, scientists are still chasing answers. The earliest crater, found on the Yamal Peninsula in 2014, is about 30 meters across and more than 50 meters deep, surrounded by ejecta that hint at explosive origins. Its walls are so vertical that they look as if carved by machines. A University of Oslo team led by Helge Hellevang now adds a new idea to the mix, proposing a model that could explain why these holes form specifically on the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas—and not elsewhere in the Arctic.
Deep Heat and Deep Gas: The New Mechanism Behind Gas Emission Craters
Gas emission craters (GECs) are driven by a buildup of pressurized methane. The Oslo team agrees this is the core driver, but they challenge the idea that permafrost-internal processes alone explain the eruptions. “If permafrost-internal processes, triggered by climate change, were responsible for the eruptions, one would expect that GECs would also form elsewhere in areas of permafrost containing gas hydrates, ground ice, or cryopegs. This is not the case,” they write. Instead, they propose that heat and natural gas from deep below the permafrost—hiding in rock fault systems beneath the Yamal and Gydan ice—provide the extra force needed for subterranean explosions. It helps that these peninsulas sit atop one of the world's largest natural gas reserves. Climate change likely plays a role: warming may expose these holes by weakening the permafrost’s lid and allowing gas to burst through more easily.
The Road Ahead: Testing the Model and What It Means
Despite offering a plausible mechanism, the model must be tested against real-world measurements. The craters’ confinement to the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas points to unique geological conditions, not a universal permafrost process. The study was published in Science of the Total Environment, and researchers emphasize that further measurements are needed before we can claim a definitive explanation of these enigmatic craters.
