[Rockhounds] Chemists Finally Unravel the Mystery of Siberia’s Explosive Craters

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

If you need one more reason to worry about warming global temperatures, you
can add the ground spontaneously blowing up to the list.

In 2014, a bizarre crater was found in Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula. Since
then, several more similar holes have been located
<https://gizmodo.com/everything-is-extremely-normal-and-totally-fine-1844909673>.
Geologists who studied the sites concluded they were the result of
explosions.

Those must have been some blasts, as these are not mere potholes. Some of
the craters measure as deep as 165 feet (50 meters). High levels of methane
were detected in the regions of the craters, leading scientists to believe
the combustible gas—large amounts of which are trapped beneath the Siberian
permafrost—was being released as the area’s average temperature rose. But
further study established melting permafrost alone wouldn’t have caused the
blast.

Now, we finally know what likely happened, thanks to a team of chemical
engineers. Publishing their findings
<https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL108987> in
Geophysical Research Letters, the scientists wrote that rapid underground
pressure changes played a key role in things going kablooey.

“There are very, very specific conditions that allow for this phenomenon to
happen,” said Ana Morgado, a chemical engineer at the University of
Cambridge, who worked on the study, in a press release. “We’re talking
about a very niche geological space.”

https://gizmodo.com/geologists-finally-unravel-the-mystery-of-siberias-explosive-craters-2000504596