For several years, such discoveries have been more and more frequent in Siberia, yet they are increasingly surprising and exerting a certain fascination. In July 2020, the team from the local television channel Vesti Iamal TV was returning from a business trip. Flying over the region, journalists noticed the huge crater and its discovery immediately piqued the interest of many scientists.

What caused this crater? Investigators believe it was a methane gas explosion. Blocks of stone and ice were projected hundreds of meters from the epicenter. The phenomenon is not uncommon in the region, as it is crater number 17 found on the Yamal Peninsula since 2014.

Methane hydrates develop in permafrost (frozen soil, very rich in organic matter) (a solid chemical compound, a mixture of ice and methane, which allows the soil to remain solid). Due to climate change, permafrost is warming. As it is heated, bubbles of methane hydrates are released, which, located near the earth’s surface, return to the gaseous state and thus the explosion occurs, the geologists explained.

Although the cause of these huge holes is always the same, the crater discovered this summer is impressive for its size, but also for the fact that it has preserved many characteristics of the original matter. “This crater is unique. It brings a lot of scientific information that we cannot yet reveal,” said Vasili Bogoiavlenski, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, mysteriously, Digi24.ro reports, citing the Siberian Times.