Gigantic hole mysteriously appears in Siberia. What caused it? (+video) - CSMonitor.com There will probably be a 'gag' thread in Fred's shortly but I figured the adults might be curious in what happened. Permafrost cap melt letting some accumulated high-pressure escape? Bob Wilson
I understand melting permafrost releases methane, a potent GHG, so that sounds bad if it is a part of a positive feedback loop in the global temperature system.
Here is another link -- very short story, but with multiple additional links. There are several known craters of this type. Science News: Siberian crater mystery may be solved
I believe this was a gas well that went wrong and blew out. As the escaping gas burned, it eroded the soil around the hole, making it larger and larger over time. It's not surprising that nobody owned up to this, and probably walked away from it. Here in Alberta, we've had some big blowouts over the years. One of them was drilled in 1916, and spewed gas and salt water for 87 years before it was finally capped in 2003, at a cost of $5M.
