By Bob Price

Three huge, mysterious craters discovered this year in Siberia could have a lot in common with the Bermuda Triangle, according to Russian scientists.

The craters were discovered in the vast, almost completely uninhabited Yamal and Taymyr peninsular areas of Siberia. One crater measures 262 feet across and 229 feet deep, and the other two are similar in size.

Their formation remains unexplained, sparking wide-ranging speculation, from gas explosions and meteorite strikes to UFO’s, black holes and Lovecraftian horrors emerging from the depths.

Now Russian scientists from the Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum-Gas Geology and Geophysics have postulated a theory, just published in the journal Science in Siberia. And their theory also happens to be one of the leading ones for the disappearance of ships and planes in the area off the coast of Florida known as the Bermuda Triangle.

The area is known to be sitting on top of the largest natural gas reservoir in Russia, and these scientists speculate that unusually warm temperatures in the area caused the release of gas hydrates, made up largely of methane, from deep in the crust, resulting in huge explosions. Other factors, including tectonic shifting, would have had to come into play at just the right times, making the explosions a rare phenomenon. Their main concern is the possible threat to the natural gas industry near the area.

For decades, release of methane deposits from the ocean floor have been suspected of causing the disappearance of ships and aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle. It is theoretically possible that a large release could infuse the water around a ship with methane gas and immediately destroy the ship’s buoyancy, causing it to sink very rapidly. Such methane releases could also cause severe turbulence in the atmosphere, serious enough under certain conditions to destroy an aircraft.

The scientists cautioned that their theory was only preliminary, and that more study of the mysterious craters would be required.

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