Extreme Temperature Diary- Saturday September 20th, 2025/Main Topic: The Siberian Tundra Is Exploding. New Research Helps Explain Why. – Guy On Climate
Dear Diary. It’s been a while since I’ve addressed the Arctic tundra thawing leading to methane release. Of course, we know that methane, or natural gas, is about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide but lingers for a much shorter time in the atmosphere. Siberia has an abundance of it, so the concern is that much more methane will be released as tundra thaw increases at a near exponential rate over the next several decades.
People living in Siberia and others concerned with the environment have also noticed an increase in methane bombs going off, leaving large craters dotting the landscape. For an update on this trend here is a new New York Tines article:
"Gas moves up through faults into a cavity under the permafrost that’s solid enough to prevent most of the gas from leaking into the atmosphere. When ⬆️ temps thaw permafrost, the seal is weakened...pressure inside the cavity increases as higher temperatures release gas trapped under the ice" =Blast — Virginia Gewin (@virginiagewin.bsky.social) 2025-09-19T14:50:40.574Z
New Research Helps Explain Gas Craters in Siberia – The New York Times
The Siberian Tundra Is Exploding. New Research Helps Explain Why.Spontaneous gas explosions appear to be increasing in northern Russia because of climate change and some specific local conditions. A gas crater on the Yamal Peninsula in northern Russia in August 2014.Credit…Vasily Bogoyavlensky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Joshua Rapp Learn
Sept. 16, 2025
The first crater was found in 2014 in the far north of western Siberia, the result of a spontaneous underground explosion that sent earth flying in all directions. More discoveries followed, with some of the holes more than 150 feet deep.
The cause was a mystery at first, but scientists eventually linked the exploding land to climate change and rising temperatures. As the permafrost thaws, they determined, pockets of methane can form below the surface.
But questions remained: Why were the explosions happening only in Siberia, when the Arctic as a whole is warming even faster than the rest of the planet? And will the blasts become more frequent if the planet continues to heat up?
Now, a new study in the journal Science of the Total Environment is offering answers.
Helge Hellevang, an environmental geoscientist at the University of Oslo and lead author on the new study, said he first got interested in the craters, on the Yamal and Gyda peninsulas, after watching a short BBC documentary about them. “We immediately wanted to understand how these could form,” Dr. Hellevang said.
His team examined the literature, he said, but none of the published research on the craters gave a satisfactory explanation of why the craters formed on the two northern peninsulas and not in the “vast areas of permafrost elsewhere in the Arctic.”
So Dr. Hellevang and his colleagues decided to take a closer look at the data. They started with a review of published observations in English and Russian. Based on that review, the team created its own computer models for the origin of the explosions.
This part of Siberia is known for its large deposits of natural gas. But Dr. Hellevang and his colleagues noticed that the Yamal and Gyda peninsulas also had signs of permafrost thinning related to faulting, essentially splits in the underlying rock caused by tectonic activity in the area. He suspected that the faults played a role in the formation of the gas craters.
According to the team’s computer models, the conditions for an explosion start to form when gas moves up through faults into a cavity under the permafrost that’s solid enough to prevent most of the gas from leaking into the atmosphere. When higher temperatures thaw that permafrost, forming shallow lakes at ground level, the seal is weakened.
At the same time, pressure inside the cavity increases as higher temperatures release gas trapped under the ice, which combines with over-pressurized gas coming from faults deep below. If the pressure in the cavity gets too strong, according to the models, the whole thing can go off in a giant blast. And sometimes, it does.
 The same Yamal Peninsula crater, seen from above, in 2014.Credit…Vasily Bogoyavlensky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Since that first discovery in 2014, anywhere from eight to at least 17 gas craters, depending on how you define them, have been discovered on the two peninsulas. And the phenomenon could become more common, according to Dr. Hellevang.
“As atmospheric heating and weakening of the surface permafrost continuous, it is likely that more explosions will occur,” he said.
Evgeny Chuvilin, a geologist with the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow who has studied the gas craters but was not involved in Dr. Hellevang’s work, said the new study brought earlier research together very well. But while the models used are good, Dr. Chuvilin said, the geology of the area is “poorly studied” and nobody has bored deep into the craters to see their full depth.
“The available individual geophysical data are indirect and remain unvalidated,” Dr. Chuvilin said. One limitation of the models proposed by Dr. Hellevang’s team, he said, is that it does not explain how cavities form below the surface in the first place.
It’s possible that such explosions have occurred in the past, but they might have been missed because satellite observations of the area were less frequent and the local population is sparse. Because some debris probably fall back into fill these craters after an explosion, it’s also very likely they were even deeper initially.
“These craters degrade quickly into lakes as they melt or fill with water, so it is possible that we have not noticed all of them forming before they degraded,” said Lauren Schurmeier, a researcher at the University of Hawaii who published a separate study on the gas craters in 2023. “There are many more lake-like structures in this area than craters.”
Dr. Hellevang said he would like to observe how these gas craters begin to evolve into lakes over the years, and whether they begin to look like other lakes in the region. Conditions were similar or warmer in the area about 9,000 to 10,000 years ago, and it’s possible such craters occurred then, as well.
If so, some water bodies may have had a violent beginning. “Many of these lakes could have been emissions craters,” Dr. Hellevang said.
Our Coverage of Climate and the EnvironmentRelated Content More in ClimateHere are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation report:
‼️ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE
TROPICAL NIGHT AT 1800M IN AUSTRIA
Min 20.4 Hahnenkamm
Never happened 250+ years of Austria history ANYTIME ANYWHERE
No summer heat wave ever made what happened today. On Sept 20th!
One of the most extreme event Europe has ever seen.
Absolutely historic — Extreme Temperatures Around the World (@extremetemps.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T15:55:07.206Z
ABSOLUTE INSANITY IN THE CANARY ISLANDS
Brutal NIGHT MINIMUM
32.4 San Nicolas
We are are record level for ALL AFRICA for this time of the year.
San Nicolas also was the SECOND hottest spot WORLDWIDE tonight
Yesterday records
39.9 Gran Canaria
33.6 Hierro
Table Kudos AEMET — Extreme Temperatures Around the World (@extremetemps.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T09:52:33.218Z
Record heat never ends in JAPAN and it persists in the South (and will go on for any foreseeable future into October).
Today September hottest day in history again in the Chichijima Island with 33.1C.
A new heat wave is expected next week. — Extreme Temperatures Around the World (@extremetemps.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T08:36:39.580Z
Record destroyed again at Juan de Nova !
Minimum 26.8C, Hottest September night ever recorded in French Southern Territory
beaten 5 times already this month
In SOUTH AFRICA Records destroyed with extreme margins too:
Min 22.2C Van Zylrus 935m asl- September hottest night — Extreme Temperatures Around the World (@extremetemps.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T13:36:48.629Z
SOUTH AMERICA
Ready to rewrite history?
Sunday might be the September Hottest night ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere
The record was just set 1 year ago at Cuiaba,BRAZIL🇧🇷
Will PARAGUAY 🇵🇾 dethrone it with Filadelfia?
But don't understimate ARGENTINA 🇦🇷 with Posta Salazar — Extreme Temperatures Around the World (@extremetemps.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T01:35:37.051Z
Wildfire smoke could soon kill 71,000 Americans every year.
The haze may already kill 40,000 people in the U.S. each year — the same number who die in traffic crashes. Climate change will only make matters worse.
grist.org/health/wildf...
#Wildfire #Smoke #Climate #Health #Wellness #Disaster — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-09-18T15:12:01.908Z
UK net zero economy grows 10% in a year.
#climate
eciu.net/media/press-... — Dr Paul Dorfman (@drpauldorfman.bsky.social) 2025-09-19T10:51:56.262Z
“We buy homes” companies are procuring disaster-damaged properties for cheap. Survivors say they're taking advantage of tragedy.
grist.org/housing/disa...
#Disaster #Weather #RealEstate #Homes #Climate #News — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-09-18T18:00:51.610Z
We urgently need more sustainable use and protection of marine ecosystems.
Read about "the intensity of 10 different types of human-caused pressure, including the effects of #climate change, fishing, and pollution, across the global oceans".
🧪 #Science #Ecology #SDGs
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... — Manuela Casasoli (@manuelacasasoli.bsky.social) 2025-09-19T13:29:22.489Z
🎥
We need to take #ClimateAction by choosing #climate resilient development pathways
Learn more📖 www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/w...
PL RP Thank you!🩷💚💙
graph from: ' #ClimateChange 2022 - Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability' @ipcc.bsky.social
#EndFossilFuels #SaveOurPlanet #SaveTheEarth #Klima — My Zero Carbon #ClimateAction (@myzerocarbon.org) 2025-09-16T11:49:27.696Z
Ice roads are a lifeline for First Nations. As Canada warms, they’re disappearing.
Indigenous peoples are navigating the slow collapse of winter roads — and an even slower pace of help.
grist.org/indigenous/i...
#Indigenous #Tribes #Canada #Climate #Trucking #Ice #Climate #Roads #Transportation — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-09-18T18:59:26.353Z
"Stiell also wants the UN to change tack, away from the dire warnings of calamity"
The worst of climate appeasement
If this man doesn't think we are heading towards #climate calamity, then he doesn't understand the science and should resign immediately
www.theguardian.com/environment/... — Prof Bill McGuire (@profbillmcguire.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T09:31:14.960Z
Closing in on 500 events for Sun Day, and the only state we're missing is South Dakota! find yours at sunday.earth — Bill McKibben (@billmckibben.bsky.social) 2025-09-19T21:43:43.245Z
"Stop giving power to people who don't believe in science or worse than that, pretend they don't believe in climate change for their own self-interest." Harrison Ford
There is no time to wait. #ActOnClimate
#climate #energy #biodiversity #dumptrump — Mike Hudema (@mikehudema.bsky.social) 2025-09-17T18:07:08.215Z
#solar is booming globally.
#renewables #climate
www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol... — Dr Paul Dorfman (@drpauldorfman.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T07:00:13.476Z
If Canada is to meet future electricity demand affordably and reliably, 70% of new capacity should come from wind, solar, and battery storage, creating billions in investment opportunities and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
#climate #energy #cdnpoli
www.theenergymix.com/wind-solar-s... — Ontario Clean Air Alliance (@oncleanair.bsky.social) 2025-09-18T17:36:10.758Z
Mark Carney should pursue renewable energy as a national project.
Instead he has shut down both the Green Homes Grant AND the Green Homes Loan with no replacement.
#cdnpoli #canada #climate
rabble.ca/columnists/m... — Kai, a very old GenX 🇨🇦 (@kaicable.bsky.social) 2025-09-20T08:33:34.214Z
How low oil prices turned Trump’s call to ‘drill, baby, drill’ into a pipe dream.
Trump promised boom times for the U.S. oil industry. They're laying off staff and reducing spending instead.
grist.org/energy/oil-p...
#Oil #Climate #Economy #Environment #TX #Dallas #Texas — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-09-19T12:42:39.304Z
US mines are literally throwing away critical minerals.
There’s enough lithium in one year of U.S. mine waste to power 10 million electric vehicles.
grist.org/science/us-m...
#Mining #Climate #Mines #Lithium #EV #Batteries #Minerals — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-09-18T19:06:43.719Z
Defending the Earth is deadly work. A new report illuminates how much.
Nearly 150 land and environment defenders were killed or disappeared last year, most for standing up to mining and logging
grist.org/global-indig...
#Indigenous #climate #Mining #Logging #Environment #Tribes #Landback — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-09-19T19:08:12.207Z
Around the world, the student visa landscape is undergoing a tectonic shift. My latest for @nature.com looks at the impacts on early career researchers—& country economies.
One PhD student from China now plans to leave the US: “I want to work somewhere where I feel seen, valued and appreciated” — Virginia Gewin (@virginiagewin.bsky.social) 2025-08-07T20:21:34.169Z
Breaking News: A hard-fought international treaty to protect ocean life, decades in the making, cleared a final hurdle. It allows for the establishment of enormous conservation zones in international waters. — The New York Times (@nytimes.com) 2025-09-19T20:34:37.741155Z
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