A giant hole was discovered in northern Siberia's Yamal Peninsula earlier this year in July after oil and gas technicians aboard a helicopter saw and captured video of the massive crater while passing over the region. Following the discovery of this sinkhole, two more mysterious sinkholes appeared in Russia.
Although there were several theories on how the mysterious sinkhole has formed, there was no definitive answer on how it came about. Speculations as to what caused the gaping hole include fossil fuel exploration (because the hole is located just 25 miles from the region's largest gas field), global warming, meteorite strikes, stray missiles and even the workings of aliens from outer space.
In a bid to find out what is behind the phenomenon, a group of scientists, a medic and a professional climber embarked on a mission to descend into the bottom of the massive crater. The exploration is anticipated to shed light on how the mysterious sinkhole has formed.
Scientists are currently working on a theory that gas hydrates could be responsible to the mysterious crater formation. Gas hydrates are ice-like forms of water that contain gas molecules such as methane and occur naturally under some parts of the oceans and in permafrost regions. Interestingly, gas hydrates is also associated with the Bermuda Triangle, where the unexplained disappearance of ships and aircraft remain shrouded in mystery.
"There is a version that the Bermuda Triangle is a consequence of gas hydrates reactions. They start to actively decompose with methane ice turning into gas," said Igor Yeltsov, from the Trofimuk Institute. "It happens in an avalanche-like way, like a nuclear reaction, producing huge amounts of gas. That makes ocean to heat up and ships sink in its waters mixed with a huge proportion of gas."
For the massive crater in Russia, scientists from Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum-Gas Geology and Geophysics posit that heat from below the surface due to geological fault lines and above the surface because of warm climate conditions led to a massive release of gas hydrates which cause underground explosions in a similar manner that eruptions under the Atlantic Ocean have possibly led to the Bermuda triangle phenomenon.
Vladimir Pushkarev, Russian Centre of Arctic Exploration, who led the mission deep down the hole, described the exploration as successful as they have made it down into the funnel and made all the necessary measurements. Before the data can be processed though, a definitive conclusion cannot yet be drawn on what caused the formation of the Siberian crater.
