TYUMEN, April 13. /TASS/. Russian scientists took water and bottom sediments samples from ten lakes in the Yamalo-Nenets region, including from the lakes, which formed in places of gas emission craters. The study will explain formation of lake basins in the Arctic, press service of the Tyumen State University said.
"A joint expedition, organized by the Yamal branch of the Russian Center for the Arctic Studies, featured scientists from the Institute of Cryology and Cryosophy, the Institute of the Earth’s Cryosphere and the Vinogradsky Institute of Microbiology," the press service said. "The task was to take parameters and samples of water and bottom sediments in the sakes, including the lakes, which formed in gas emissions’ craters, and also to take snow samples to see snow’s input in the lake water’s chemical structures."
The scientists studied ten lakes. "The test results will be used for explaining how and why the lakes could form in the Arctic," the University said.
Within recent years, a few craters were found on Yamal - now all of them are filled with water. The craters have formed from gas emissions from under the surface. Specialists warn the craters may be hazardous for reindeer herders, shift workers’ camps, and for highways, railroads and pipelines.
The expedition was organized under a project, financed by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation. Earlier, the University’ specialists reconstructed a process, where a hill develops (before the gas emission) above a pit, which formed in 2013. They said, the hill had formed for at least 66 years - for all that time it was growing in height and width.
In order to forecast possible hazardous natural calamities under the ground, including formation of the pits, scientists in the Yamalo-Nenets Region set a net of seismic monitoring equipment. One set may analyze ongoing seismic processes in the area of 200km. The equipment is installed in Sabetta, at Bovanenkovsky and Kharasaveisk deposits - those are districts of active industrial development.