this is russia and to the right of the country is siberia but many people do
not know how large that part of the country is shown in blue on the map it covers 77
of the land mass of russia however population wise siberia is responsible for only 23
of the total population of the massive country however the sparse population is not
the only strange thing about siberia because many mysterious things happen in that massive and cold
region in this video we bring you the terrifying discoveries scientists have made under siberia
siberia is a fascinating place for many reasons located to the east of russia's ural mountains
siberia is known for its harsh winters and vast landscape in fact if siberia were its own country
it would be the largest country in the world by area at around 13 million square kilometers
or 5.1 million square miles siberia makes up three-quarters of all russian territory and almost
10 of the earth's land surface siberia is a land of contrasts and while the place is associated
with harshly cold temperatures the weather isn't actually cold year-round during siberian winters
the temperature can reach lows of minus 94 degrees fahrenheit or minus 70 degrees celsius however
summers are warm across siberia with some parts of western siberia reaching highs of 95 degrees
fahrenheit or 35 degrees celsius this weather is due to the continental climate of the area
characterized by cold winters and warm summers how long have humans lived in siberia astonishingly
humans have occupied siberia for as long as 125 000 years in 2010 archaeologists discovered a
human bone belonging to a hybrid by dennis oven and neanderthal in the altai mountains of siberia
siberian lands have long been home to indigenous groups including the nivky the ivanki and the
bereat siberia is home to the world's deepest lake lake baikal at 5 387 feet 1 642 meters it contains
over 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water and is fed by over 330 rivers the lake freezes
over completely every winter and you can find ice as thick as 6.5 feet in some places siberia
is crucial to the economy of russia because over 70 percent of the country's oil and gas comes from
the place natural reserves spread over more than two million square kilometers the siberian federal
district comprises 130 siberian cities including three with over a million citizens novosibirsk
homsk and krasnoyask however siberia is full of strange unexplainable mysteries some of which can
affect the whole world for example how do you feel about a 30 000 year old virus coming back to life
and not just a virus but a jumbo sized virus the ancient pathogen was discovered buried 30
meters 100 feet down in the frozen ground called pithovirus sibericum it belongs to a class of
giant viruses discovered 10 years ago this virus is wider in diameter than the other giant viruses
discovered at 600 nanometers versus 500. it has a genome of 600 000 base pairs imagine the rungs on
the dna ladder which hold the genetic instructions to create 500 proteins the virus is so large
that unlike other viruses it can be seen under a microscope the last time it infected anything was
more than 30 000 years ago but in the laboratory it has sprung to life once again tests show that
it attacks amoebas but why should you be concerned about this discovery if siberia is thousands of
miles away from you it is because as researchers put it this is a recipe for disaster they believe
there could be more dangerous pathogens locked in the permafrost since the 1970s the permafrost has
retreated and reduced in thickness and climate change projections suggest it will decrease
further it has also become more accessible and is being hide for its natural resources experts
warn that exposing the deep layers could expose new viral threats professor jean-michel clevery
from the national center of scientific research warns it is a recipe for disaster if you start
having industrial explorations people will start to move around the deep permafrost layers through
mining and drilling those old layers will be penetrated and this is where the danger is coming
from for example ancient strains of the smallpox virus which was declared eradicated 30 years ago
could pose a risk because if these viruses survive in the same way those amoeba viruses survive
then smallpox is not eradicated from the planet only stopped on the surface by going
deeper we may reactivate the possibility that smallpox could become a disease of humans again
fortunately the sibericum virus poses no danger to humans because it can't infect other animals
or us but other viruses could be unleashed as the ground becomes exposed if that is not scary enough
for you we bring you the mysterious but massive craters showing up across the tundra of siberia
due to mining and other human activities it is not strange to find wide and deep holes in places
worldwide however when a russian tv crew flying over the siberian tundra in the summer of 2020
spotted a massive crater 30 meters 100 feet deep and 20 meters wide it raised many questions
the hull was striking in its size symmetry and the explosive force of nature that it must have
taken to have created it scientists were not sure exactly how the huge hole which was at
least the ninth spotted in the region since 2013 formed initial theories floated when the
first crater was discovered near an oil and gas field in the amal peninsula in northwest siberia
included a meteorite impact a ufo landing and the collapse of a secret underground military storage
facility however scientists would later discover a massive crater appearing violently and explosively
in the siberian tundra it was a powerful blowout of methane gas that threw up ice and rock hundreds
of feet away left a gaping circular scar in the empty and eerie landscape it was the 17th hole to
appear in the remote yamaha and gaida peninsulas in the russian arctic since the first was spotted
in 2013 mystifying scientists the craters are thought to be linked to climate change
and drone photography 3d modeling and artificial intelligence are helping to reveal their secrets
the new crater is uniquely well preserved a surface water hadn't yet accumulated in the crater
when we surveyed it which allowed us to study a fresh crater untouched by degradation it was also
the first time researchers had been able to fly a drone deep into a crater reaching 10 to 15 meters
below ground allowing them to capture the shape of the underground cavity where methane had built up
the drone took around 80 images enabling the researchers to build a 3d model of the crater
30 meters deep the equivalent of three buses lined up end to end the model showed unusual grottos or
caverns in the lower part of the crater mainly confirming what scientists had theorized methane
gas builds in a cavity in the ice leading to the appearance of a mound of ground level the heap
grows in size before blowing out ice into other debris in an explosion and leaving behind the
massive crater the methane source could have been from deep layers inside the earth or closer to the
surface it could also be a combination of the two permafrost is a vast natural reservoir of methane
meanwhile methane is a potent greenhouse gas much more effective than carbon dioxide a trapping heat
and warming the planet the arctic is warming two times faster than the global average and
the warmer summers have weakened the permafrost layer which acts as a cap making it easier for
gas to escape some experts estimate the soil in the permafrost region hold twice as much carbon
as the atmosphere making the area extremely important in the fight against climate change
so it is easy to see that climate change impacts the probability of gas blowout craters appearing
in the arctic permafrost with satellite imagery the researchers were also able to pinpoint when
the crater formed they believed the mound would have exploded at some point between may 15 and
june 9 2020 the crater was first spotted during a helicopter flight on july 16 2020 the timing
was not random because it was the time of the year when there was a lot of solar energy influx which
caused the snow to melt in the upper layers of the ground to heat up which caused changes in
their properties and behavior while these craters have appeared in a very sparsely populated region
they pose risks to indigenous people and oil and gas infrastructure the holes are usually found by
accident during helicopter flights or by reindeer herders but for the people living there it could
spell a disaster for example professor vasily bergoyevlenski spoke to a reindeer herder who
witnessed a massive explosion of a mound on a river channel in the yamaha peninsula in 2017.
every morning she was going to a small frost mound in the river because it was the highest
place from where she could look after her reindeer however in the morning when the explosion happened
she started to feel something in her legs and she became afraid and ran which saved her life
because when she was about 200 or 300 meters away the mound exploded 17 craters have been documented
so far but scientists don't know how many there are in total or when the next one could blow
out because they don't yet have good tools for detecting and mapping the gas emission craters
let's hear what you think of the mysterious discoveries in siberia in the comment section