In the arctic steppes of Siberia, in a place named Yamal (translated: ‘end of the world’), a mysterious 30 meter-wide, 70 meter-deep hole appeared recently. Conspiracy theorists, scientists, journalists, and the internet alike have since been offering hypothesis of the possible cause and long-term affects of the phenomenon.

Scientists recently completed an expedition to the hole and have come back with more questions than answers.

“The crater has more of an oval than a circular shape, it makes it harder to calculate the exact diameter. As of now our estimates is about thirty meters,” Andrey Plekhanov, Senior Researcher at the State Scientific Centre of Arctic Research, to the Siberian Post. “If we try to measure diameter together with soil emission, the so-called parapet, then the diameter is up to sixty meters. The crater is from 50 to 70 meters deep.”

Soil and ice samples went straight to laboratories. Scientists report that the crater appeared relatively recently, perhaps a year or two ago.

“Could it be linked to the global warming? We have to continue our research to answer this question,” Plekhanov wondered. “Two previous summers – years 2012 and 2013 were relatively hot for Yamal, perhaps this has somehow influenced the formation of the crater. But we have to do our tests and research first and then say it more definitively.”

Although UFOs, global warming, and the KGB have been posited as the cause, most likely it was a naturally occurring lake forming process.

“For now we can say for sure that under the influence of internal processes there was an ejection in the permafrost. I want to stress that it was not an explosion, but an ejection, so there was no heat released as it happened. I also want to recall a theory that our scientists worked on in the 1980s – it has been left and then forgotten for a number of years. The theory was that the number of Yamal lakes formed because of exactly such natural process happening in the permafrost.”

The processes were taking place about 8,000 years ago. Perhaps they are repeating nowadays. If this theory is confirmed, scientists can say that the world has witnessed a unique natural process that formed the unusual landscape of Yamal peninsula.