A team of Russian scientists is investigating a mystery in one of the country’s most isolated northernmost regions.  It’s a giant crater – 100 meters wide – that opened up in a peninsula whose name translates as “the end of the earth”.

The scientists will investigate the crater’s origins and collect soil, air, and water samples.  A government spokesman in the Yamal Peninsula says the crater does not appear to be the result of a meteor strike.  Indeed, the big hole in the ground is surrounded by dirt, which suggest that something burst through the ground in order to get out.  And it looks like there’s a lot of caves down there.

As much as I’d love it to be a giant Kaiju, one Russian broadcaster says it's possible that warming temperatures caused permafrost to melt, releasing natural gas – kind of like a roll of Mentos in a bottle of Diet Coke.  The region is rich in natural gas, and is only about 45 kilometers from Russia’s vast Bovanenkovo gas field.