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Solving the Siberian Crater Mystery

Why permafrost in the tundra has begun to explode.

But when researchers dug into the mystery, they found high levels of methane in the atmosphere around the craters, suggesting that the forces responsible were not objects falling from above but rather explosive belches of gas from deep below the surface. Researcher Evgeny Chuvilin, who has also studied the craters, calls the hypothesis “novel”; however, he thinks it does not entirely describe the complexity underground, including how deep layers of ice could prevent melt water from moving downward. Chuvilin and his colleagues suggest the methane causing the explosions that create the craters may also come from rocks deep below the permafrost, which formed more than 65 million years ago and are associated with the area’s oil and gas reserves.

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