Russian scientists recently discovered 7,000 earthen knobs erupting from the Siberian Arctic, each the size of a small hill. It was as though the permafrost had broken out into giant grass-covered mounds. What’s more, an unknown number of these bubbles could contain methane and explode, forming craters, the Siberian Times reported.
Using a combination of satellite images and field study, the researchers tallied the bumps. They found far more than previously counted. “At first such a bump is a bubble, or ‘bulgunyakh’ in the local Yakut language. With time the bubble explodes, releasing gas,” Alexey Titovsky, director of the Yamal Department for Science and Innovation, told the Siberian Times. “This is how gigantic funnels form.” --
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