SoylentNews

Giant Crater in Russia's Far North Sparks Mystery

posted by azrael on Monday July 28 2014, @07:28PM   
from the hidden-depths dept.

janrinok writes:

A vast crater discovered in a remote region of Siberia known to locals as "the end of the world" is causing a sensation in Russia, with a group of scientists being sent to investigate.

The giant hole in the remote energy-rich Yamalo-Nenetsky region first came to light in a video uploaded to YouTube that has since been viewed more than seven million times. "The crater is enormous in size--you could fly down into it in several Mi-8s (helicopters) without being afraid of hitting anything," the person who posted the video, named only as Bulka, wrote.

The crater is located in the permafrost around 30 kilometres (18 miles) from a huge gas field north of the regional capital of Salekhard, roughly 2,000 kilometres northeast of Moscow. [The deputy director of the Oil and Gas Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vasily Bogoyavlensky] said the crater was likely to have been caused by the melting of underground ice in the permafrost, freeing gas that then built up high pressure and broke through to the surface. "At some point an explosion took place without any flame," Bogoyavlensky said.

In an effort to discover its mysteries, regional governor Dmitry Kobylkin sent a group of scientists into the tundra where the crater is located in the Yamal peninsula--which translates as "the end of the world", Interfax reported.

• Nothing to see, move on folks... Nothing to see, move on folks... (Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Monday July 28 2014, @07:48PM

  by bob_super (1357) on Monday July 28 2014, @07:48PM (#74750)

  So, I need to keep the cat off the control panel of my Giant Moon Laser...

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Funny=2, Total=2
  Extra 'Funny' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		4

• Re:Nothing to see, move on folks... (Score: 2) by present_arms on Monday July 28 2014, @09:39PM

  by present_arms (4392) on Monday July 28 2014, @09:39PM (#74789) Homepage Journal

  I think you have been using an old version of apple maps, the NSA is nowhere near there.

  --
  http://trinity.mypclinuxos.com/

  Parent

• Correction (Score: 1) by pillo on Wednesday July 30 2014, @08:05AM

  by pillo (93) on Wednesday July 30 2014, @08:05AM (#75416)

  [from TFA]:

  The giant hole in the remote energy-rich Yamalo-Nenetsky region [...]

  Giant Moon Laser? Naaah, don't believe it for a second.
  Given the name, clearly somebody should have kept their cat off of a Battlecruiser's main deck in the past.

  Parent