Strange Ice Circles in Lake Baikal Seen from Space

Strange things can be seen on the surface of the Earth from space. Here is a photo taken by astronauts onboard the International Space Station in April 2009. It is a circular formation made by thin ice in Lake Baikal in Siberia (map, left). The lake is the deepest known in the whole world and the formation pictured measures 4.4 km in diameter. It is listed as endangered due to proposed mining efforts.

The question that came up when people saw this picture is how the ice circle was formed. Images of alien spacecraft landing on ice come to mind, but no, scientists actually have an explanation for this. They say methane gas regularly wells up from beneath the lake, forming warm-water eddies in ring formation created by the Coriolis effect. Methane is a greenhouse gas and is toxic in large volumes.

Of course, we all know the Coriolis effect is produced by the Earth's rotation from West to East and it's the same force that makes our drain water turn either clockwise or counter clockwise depending on where it's draining above or below the equator. It's the same force that creates the Earth's hurricanes and typhoons.

Interestingly, a similar ring structure was observed and photographed in the Martian south pole environment (left). The picture of the Martian polar ice ring was first taken by the Mariner and Viking orbiting probes. High resolution images were taken later by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The ring is 4 kilometers across and has a hill-like feature in the middle similar to a pingo here one Earth. A pingo is caused by water upwelling from the bottom of a landscape with a underground permafrost environment. The high-resolution image of the Mars polar ice ring follows.


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Tunguska Explosion May Have Left Remnants in Lake Cheko

The powerful explosion, said to be equal to a thousand atomic bombs, that shook a 2,000-square-kilometer of forest in Tunguska, Siberia on the 30th of June, 1908 is still a mystery. It leveled the forest in a radial, circular fashion with the epicenter marked by trees which were the only ones left standing.

Theories abound about the event. The most popular and widely-accepted of these is that of a body from space, like a meteor, comet, or asteroid which exploded no more than ten kilometers above the ground in what is called an aerial burst. Now, researchers Luca Gasparini, Giuseppe Longo and colleagues from the University of Bologna are thinking that a small, shallow body of water, lake Cheko, near the epicenter of the blast could have remains of the body that caused it. At top-left is an exaggerated 3D representation of Lake Cheko and an aerial view of it.

The lake, they say, was created when part of this object hit the ground with a much lessened velocity after the parent body exploded in the air. The picture at left shows toppled trees near the center. Initial analysis of the bottom of the lake reveals a layer of mud underneath of which (10 meters) lies what may be convoluted remains of an extraterrestrial object mixed with terrestrial matter. Lake Cheko strangely does not appear in maps prior to 1928. Photos and references are from BBC news.