Comment 14: ''Mysterious craters appeared in Siberia''

 

Permafrost is a permanently frozen layer below Earth’s surface which consists of soil, gravel, and sand. Permafrost can be found on land and below the ocean floor, where temperatures rarely rise above freezing. That is why permafrost is often found in Arctic regions such as Greenland, the U.S. state of Alaska, Russia, China, and Eastern Europe.

There are two types of permafrost. One is from glacier ice, left over from the last Ice Age, and the other one is ice that has formed in the ground itself. An area can have continuous, discontinuous, sporadic, or isolated permafrost. The part of Russia known as Siberia has continuous permafrost, which means that there is a continuous sheet of frozen material.

A Russian TV crew flying over the Siberian tundra this summer spotted a massive crater 30 meters (100 feet) deep and 20 meters wide. Although scientists link it to climate change, they are not sure exactly how the huge hole formed.

Permafrost, which amounts to two-thirds of the Russian territory, is a huge natural reservoir of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and recent hot summers in the region may have played a role in creating these craters. Studies show that gases, mostly methane, can accumulate in the upper layers of permafrost and create pressure that is strong enough to create a crater.

In conclusion, it is shown that global warming is causing an important impact on our planet due to the release of high quantities of CO2 of the permafrost melting. As the global temperature keeps rising, I think scientists must research the crater formation phenomenon urgently to prevent possible disasters.