Scientists may have cracked the giant Siberian crater mystery — and the news isn’t good

[onehandle]

By now, you’ve heard of the crater on the Yamal Peninsula. It’s the one that suddenly appeared, yawning nearly 200 feet in diameter, and made several rounds in the global viral media machine. The adjectives most often used to describe it: giant, mysterious, curious. Scientists were subsequently “baffled.” Locals were “mystified.” There were whispers that aliens were responsible. Nearby residents peddled theories of “bright flashes” and “celestial bodies.”

There’s now a substantiated theory about what created the crater. And the news isn’t so good. It may be methane gas, released by the thawing of frozen ground. According to a recent Nature article, “air near the bottom of the crater contained unusually high concentrations of methane — up to 9.6% — in tests conducted at the site on 16 July, says Andrei Plekhanov, an archaeologist at the Scientific Centre of Arctic Studies in Salekhard, Russia. Plekhanov, who led an expedition to the crater, says that air normally contains just 0.000179% methane.”

The scientist said the methane release may be related to Yamal’s unusually hot summers in 2012 and 2013, which were warmer by an average of 5 degrees Celsius. “As temperatures rose, the researchers suggest, permafrost thawed and collapsed, releasing methane that had been trapped in the icy ground,” the report stated.

Plekhanov explained to Nature that the conclusion is preliminary. He would like to study how much methane is contained in the air trapped inside the crater’s walls. Such a task, however, could be difficult. “Its rims are slowly melting and falling into the crater,” the researcher told the science publication. “You can hear the ground falling, you can hear the water running; it’s rather spooky.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/05/scientists-may-have-cracked-the-giant-siberian-crater-mystery-and-the-news-isnt-good/

[MADem]

1. So, the earth has its stone-cold ass turned towards the fireplace, and is ... farting?

How depressing!

[sadoldgirl]

2. It is rather frightening,

because Methane is worse than CO2 as a climate changer. I think scientists expect a similar development on the poles and predict that if this happens Climate change will happen much faster than thought.

[Kelvin Mace]

3. If this is true, it is pretty much "game over"

Once methane starts purging into the air, the feedback cycle will speed up the warming process well beyond the 3-4 degrees Celsius everyone has been fretting over.

My personal opinion, having followed this for about 15 years now, is we are true and royally screwed because even the scientists who have been trying to warn us have been understating the data because the "truth" would have gotten them laughed out of society. Things are degrading much faster and will accelerate.

According to Nature, the economic cost will be around $60 trillion.

[PADemD]

4. 3rd Crater Found In Siberia. Earth's "Dragon Breath" Is Coming To Life.

Yet another explosive hole has been found in Siberia. The 3rd crater was found hundreds of miles to the east of the first 2 craters. It seems this crater has a similar structure to the others.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/31/1318014/-3rd-Crater-Found-In-Siberia-Earth-s-Dragon-Breath-Is-Coming-To-Life

[raouldukelives]

5. Fuck. I was afraid of this.

For every person out there trying to save a little bit of this world for the children of tomorrow and for wildlife there are 100's of investors pumping money into the very corporations destroying us.
I hope they are quite pleased with what they have accomplished. A legacy of death and being a helpful servant to the masters of the universe is all they will leave behind them.

[Emelina]

12. The answer is to buy local and boycott ALL large corporations.

[Takket]

6. Big trouble

Methane is a FAR more potent greenhouse gas than C)2. Scientists have been warning us that the polar ice melting would release methane which your exponentially accelerate climate change. Well here it is first hand.

Once we realize the scope and consequences of methane being released, I think we are going to be begging for the days when all we were worried about was the rise caused by CO2

[Hekate]

7. Do the Cheneys, Bushes, and Kochs of the world really think they can live in methane?

I wonder what their plan is? Are they building a big Biosphere someplace? How many serfs can be supported inside to grow their food and support them in the manner to which they are accustomed?

Dystopia here we come.

[rickyhall]

8. Climatologist: Methane Plumes From Arctic Mean We're Screwed

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/climatologist-methane-plumes-arctic-mean

[Exultant Democracy]

9. Another tipping point goes flying past, time to geo-engineer this rock.

[phantom power]

10. wheeee

[Uncle Joe]

11. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, onehandle.

[NM_Birder]

13. they are Pingos.

they are not "new", and not the end of the world. It's been there, freezing and thawing for a long long time.

this report ignores the fact that not only are they pretty common, these are not "new" and didn't form overnight. They do however feed the need for some to believe that the earth is doomed.

"scientists may have cracked the siberian crater mystery", however "they" cracked the "mystery" of where and how Pingo/Pingu are formed back in the 60's.

The ones in Alaska has been understood since the 60's.

I noticed upthread that "they" also predict the economic cost ? Exactly how do "they" estimate a 60 trilion dollar economic cost while at the same time claiming "they" just came to understand them ?

WOLF RUN ! .......... and pay some more taxes

[Orrex]

14. I never trusted this sneaking little guy

[kentuck]

15. Maybe this is what killed the dinosaurs??

Rather than a huge meteor?

[snooper2]

17. LOL, um, no

All around the world their is a thin, layer of ash found in rock formations


Below that, dinosaur bones,

above that-

no dinosaur bones-


Pretty cut and dry

[NM_Birder]

19. GOD killed the dinosaurs in the great flood.

The KT boundary is the myth



all questions answered in the divine afterlife, however due to budgetary cutbacks, life eternal will now only extend to 500 million years.

[Calista241]

16. We're all gonna die!!!!!!!!!

[NM_Birder]

20. 100% true.

[Zorro]

18. Stanford biologist warns of early stages of Earth's 6th mass extinction event

The planet's current biodiversity, the product of 3.5 billion years of evolutionary trial and error, is the highest in the history of life. But it may be reaching a tipping point.

In a new review of scientific literature and analysis of data published in Science, an international team of scientists cautions that the loss and decline of animals is contributing to what appears to be the early days of the planet's sixth mass biological extinction event.

Since 1500, more than 320 terrestrial vertebrates have become extinct. Populations of the remaining species show a 25 percent average decline in abundance. The situation is similarly dire for invertebrate animal life.

And while previous extinctions have been driven by natural planetary transformations or catastrophic asteroid strikes, the current die-off can be associated to human activity, a situation that the lead author Rodolfo Dirzo, a professor of biology at Stanford, designates an era of "Anthropocene defaunation."

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/july/sixth-mass-extinction-072414.html

[bluesbassman]

21. So the Earth is passing gas, better double the shifts at the Beano® factory.