Yamal Peninsula

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For other uses, see Yamal (disambiguation).
Map showing the location of the Yamal Peninsula.
The satellite map of Yamal Peninsula
A Nenets family

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The Yamal Peninsula (Russian: полуо́стров Яма́л) is located in Yamal-Nenets autonomous district of northwest Siberia. Russia. It extends roughly 700 km (435 mi) and is bordered principally by the Kara Sea, Baydaratskaya Bay on the west, and by the Gulf of Ob on the east. In the language of its indigenous inhabitants, the Nenets, "Yamal" means "End of the Land".

History

The peninsula consists mostly of permafrost ground and is geologically a very young place —some areas are less than ten thousand years old.[citation needed]

Yamal is inhabited by a multitude of migratory bird species.

The well preserved remains of Lyuba, a 37,000-year-old mammoth calf, were found by a reindeer herder on the peninsula in the summer of 2007. The animal was female and was determined to be one month old[1] at the time of death.[2][3]

Reindeer husbandry

According to Sven Haakanson, in the Russian Federation, the Yamal peninsula is the place where traditional large-scale nomadic reindeer husbandry is best preserved.[4][5] Nenets and Khanty reindeer herders hold about half a million domestic reindeer.

Development

The area is largely undeveloped, but work is going on with several large infrastructure projects including a gas pipeline, and several bridges.[6] Yamal holds Russia's biggest natural gas reserves.[7] The 572 km Obskaya–Bovanenkovo railway, completed in 2011, is the northernmost railway in the world.[8] Russian gas monopolist Gazprom had planned to develop the Yurkharovskoye gas field by 2011–2012. An estimate of the gas reserves here is 55 trillion cubic meters (tcm).[6] Russia's largest energy project in history, known as the Yamal project, puts the future of nomadic reindeer herding at considerable risk.[citation needed]

Yamal craters

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See also: Arctic methane release

In 2014, Yamal was the discovery site of a distinct sinkhole or pingo which quickly drew the attention of world media.[9] The sinkhole looked like the result of a huge explosion and several hypotheses were suggested to explain the formation of the crater, including a hit by a meteorite or a UFO, or the collapse of an underground gas facility.[10]

A spokesperson for the Yamal branch of the Emergencies Ministry said, "We can definitely say that it’s not a meteorite."[11]

The 60-meter (66-yard) crater is believed by a senior researcher from the Scientific Research Center of the Arctic, Andrei Plekhanov, in remarks to the Associated Press, to be likely the result of a "buildup of excessive pressure" underground because of warming regional temperatures in that portion of Siberia.[12] Tests conducted by Plekhanov's team showed unusually high concentrations of methane near the bottom of the sinkhole.[13][14]

The destabilization of gas hydrates containing huge amounts of methane gas are believed to have caused the craters on the Yamal Peninsula.[15]

Offshore methane leaks

According to researchers at Norway's Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate (CAGE), through a process called geothermal heat flux, the Siberian permafrost, which extends to the seabed of the Kara Sea, a section of the Arctic Ocean between the Yamal Peninsula and Novaya Zemlya, is thawing. According to a CAGE researcher, Aleksei Portnov:[15]

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"The permafrost is thawing from two sides... [T]he interior of the Earth is warm and is warming the permafrost from the bottom up. It is called geothermal heat flux and it is happening all the time, regardless of human influence."

— CAGE 2014

Methane is leaking in an area of at least 7500 m2. In some areas gas flares extend up to 25 m (82 ft). Prior to their research it was proposed that methane was tightly sealed into the permafrost by water depths up to 100 m (330 ft). Close to the shore however, where the permafrost seal tapers to as little as 20 m (66 ft), there are significant amounts of gas leakage.[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Baby mammoth unearthed in Yamal is 37,000 years old - scientists
  3. ↑ NY Times 11 July 2007 Story
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Yamal peninsula: The world's biggest gas reserves
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ http://news.msn.com/offbeat/66-yard-crater-appears-in-far-northern-Siberia
  13. ↑ http://www.nature.com/news/mysterious-siberian-crater-attributed-to-methane-1.15649
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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