THE SIBERIAN GLASS BEACH WHERE NATURE TURNED POLLUTION INTO BEAUTY - A former dumping ground for old bottles has been reclaimed by ocean waves into a beach of beautiful glass pebbles

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The beach where nature has transformed a Russian dumping ground for old vodka bottles into a place of beauty because waves have smoothed broken glass into ‘pebbles’ .  Glass originally comes from silica, or sand.

• Glass Beach on Ussuri Bay, near Vladivostok, was a Soviet dump for old bottles
• Over time, the jagged glass smoothed into kaleidoscopic pebbles
• The area is now called Glass Beach and is protected by Russian authorities

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STRANGE CLOUD FORMATION OVER SIBERIA had residents scared, but it was only a funnel cloud

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Social media alive with comments over the funnel-like formation in the skies over the village of Gonda in Buryatia

Meteorologists assured worried locals that it was a funnel cloud, which is they say is a high flying tornado that has not reached the Earth's surface. 

 

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THE SIBERIAN BATAGAIKA CRATER IS BELIEVED TO BE THE DOORWAY TO ANCIENT GEOLOGICAL WORLDS from 200,000 years ago - Locals hear strange noises

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By The Siberian Times

Locals hear 'booms from the underworld' in giant ravine but now scientists say it holds secrets of the planet's past.

• Batagaika started to form in 1960s after a chunk of forest was cleared: the land sunk, and has continued to do so, evidently speeded by recent warmer temperatures melting the permafrost. Picture: Alexander Gabyshev
• Many Yakutian people are said to be scared to approach the Batagaika Crater - also known as the  Batagaika Megaslump: believing in the upper, middle and under worlds, they see this as a doorway to the last of these. 
• The fearsome noises are probably just the thuds of falling soil at a landmark that is a one kilometre-long  gash up to 100 metres (328 feet) deep in the Siberian taiga. 
• Batagaika started to form in 1960s after a chunk of forest was cleared: the land sunk, and has continued to do so, evidently speeded by recent warmer temperatures melting the permafrost, so unbinding the layers on the surface and below. Major flooding in 2008 increased the size of the depression which grows at up to 15 metres per year.

 

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SCIENTISTS TO AWAKEN MONSTER-SIZED VIRUS FOUND DORMANT IN THE MELTING SIBERIAN PERMAFROST - One of several viruses showing up after thousands of years of dormancy - What could go wrong?

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Resurrecting a monster virus: Scientists to 'awaken' bug that has laid dormant in frozen Siberian wastelands for 30,000 years

Virus is called Mollivirus sibericum, which means 'soft virus from Siberia'

It is an oval shape and measures 0.6 microns, making it a 'giant' virus (photo on the right)

The bug was discovered in the permafrost of northeastern Russia 

Experts warn that climate change awaken more dangerous pathogens 

The regions in which these giant microbes have been found are rich in mineral resources, especially oil, and will be increasingly exploited as ice melts away.

 Scientists will revive the newly discovered virus by placing it with single-cell amoeba, which will serve as its host.

 Continue reading, see illustrations and watch VIDEO

THE MYSTERIOUS SIBERIAN FORTIFIED ISLAND CITY of Por-Bajin that is only 1300 years old but nobody knows who built it or why

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Por-Bajin was discovered a century ago and is still a mystery for experts

The 3.5 hectare site is located in a Siberian lake near the Mongolian border

The unexplained site is estimated to have been built between 744-840 AD

Its style and construction materials hint at Chinese architectural tradition

The mysterious island, Por-Bajin, was found in the centre of a remote lake high in the mountains of southern Siberia

At first glance the rectangular island of Por-Bajin looks like a foreboding fortress or prison, with its regular structure and ruined sections.

 

But it is unknown for certain what the rectangular island and its labyrinthine ruins, located in a lake in deepest Siberia, was actually used for when it was built 1,300 years ago. 

 

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NEW MASSIVE CRATERS APPEARING IN SIBERIA COULD BE CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE - as underground methane gas may be heating up and igniting - At least one explosion was witnessed at one of the craters

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Four new craters have been spotted by scientists in the Yamal peninsula, in Siberia

May be caused by gas from underground and fear craters becoming more common due to rising temperatures

Bright flash of light seen close to one crater which led to theories that buried gas pockets in the soil may be igniting 

Another new crater has been found less than six miles from a major gas plant and experts have called for an urgent investigation into the phenomenon 

Unexplained: The first of the new craters discovered, named B1 (pictured above), shows signs of an huge eruption of gas

 

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NUCLEAR EXPLOSION IN CLOSED RUSSIAN CITY in Siberia - Authorities say there is no cause for concern

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The Siberian Times reports:

• A small explosion at nuclear facility in a Siberian ‘closed city’ is being downplayed by the authorities, despite panic spreading among the population.
• Formerly called Tomsk-7 and located on the Tom River, Seversk was established in 1949 to produce and process materials for the Soviet nuclear weapons programme. 
• It was a secret city and did not appear on any maps until 1992 when then Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that these communities could revert back to their original historical names.
• Despite also removing the official secret status, it remains a closed city to non-residents today and there are six checkpoints at which visitors must show necessary entry documents.

Operators of the Siberian Chemical Industrial Complex say a container housing depleted uranium lost pressure and ignited, seriously injuring a nearby worker.

 

Officials are reassuring the public there has been no radiation leak into the surrounding area in Seversk, Tomsk region, with the situation being monitored using special equipment.

 

But concerned local residents have called news channels and taken to social media sites to express their anxiety over the emergency at the sprawling site. Some fear being able to open their windows.

 

The city, which was not even marked on maps during Soviet times and is still closed off to visitors, is no stranger to major incidents. In 1993 an accident at the Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex released a cloud of radioactive gas into the air, in what became one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

 

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THE MAGIC OF AN ICE CAVERN AT SUNRISE IN SIBERIA - The frozen cave on Olkhon Island at Lake Baikal

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Andrey Grachev's photos provide a rare glimpse inside the frozen grotto on a Olkhon Island at Lake Baikal 

Many adventurers have fallen through the ice, but he ignored the dangers to capture the cave in a beautiful sunlight

Andrey, from Moscow, found hundreds of icy stalactites and huge blocks of blue ice, known as ice hummocks

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PUPPY KEEPS A LOST 4 YEAR OLD GIRL WARM AND ALIVE FOR 9 DAYS IN THE SIBERIAN WILDERNESS, then travels to the village to summon help

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By Will Stewart

Mowgli meets her rescue dog! Four-year-old who survived for 12 NIGHTS in the Siberian wilderness is reunited with the puppy who saved her life by keeping her warm.

Karina Chitkova was three when she became lost in the Siberian woods 

'Why did you leave me?' she asked her puppy when they were reunited 

The pair became lost after following Karina's father into the wilderness

Naida the puppy kept her warm, before returning to the village to get help 

She was severely malnourished when rescuers found her near a river 

Now, the  four-year-old is preparing for Christmas in her home village

Her grandmother says she's alive because 'she's not scared of the forest'



After keeping her warm for 9 days, Naida went to the village to summon help

SOMETIMES YOU DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO - Passengers told to get out and push their plane after its brakes froze in -52 Celsius in Russia

Passengers disembarked in minus 52C to push after plane's brakes froze 

The Soviet-era aircraft was frozen to the ground at Igarka airport in Russia 

Many of the 70 passengers helped dislodge plane and move it backwards 

Eventually it made a successful flight to regional capital of Krasnoyarsk

Passengers on a Russian plane disembarked in minus 52C to push their jet - after its brakes froze in the icy temperatures.  The UTair aircraft 'literally froze on the ground at Igarka airport, above the Arctic Circle,' reported The Siberian Times.  'Fearing the UTair service to regional capital Krasnoyarsk could be delayed, many of the 70 passengers used brute strength to free the 30 ton Tupolev 134.'

GOING INSIDE ONE OF THE MYSTERIOUS SIBERIAN CRATERS - Scientists to probe for possible origin

By Anna Liesowska

• Haunting beauty of massive hole as scientists examine frozen lake formed after giant blowout. 
• Experts are working on a theory that gas hydrates caused underground explosions in the same way as eruptions under the Atlantic Ocean may have led to the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon.
• At the base of this hole there is a frozen lake.
• There are three craters of mysterious origin in the area.

A mission this week to the newly-formed crater on the Yamal Peninsula in northern Siberia is expected throw fresh light on how this and other such phenomenon were formed.

 

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ANCIENT REPTILIAN MONSTER SURFACES IN SIBERIAN RIVER

 Is it a mesosaur?  

By Anna Liesowska

Extinct reptile with 'toothy grin' found by fishermen as they rafted in remote area of the Yamal peninsula.

 

Is it a mesosaur? Or some other kind of dinosaur? No-one is quite sure yet.

Siberian zoologists are rushing to the site to extract the crocodile-like remains before they are covered by ice and washed away in the spring floods next year.
 

Intrepid tourists from the Wild North Fishing Club found fossil as they rafted on the Ruta-Ru River.   'The boat of our group member Oleg Yushkov bumped against something. It was not very deep there and he could discern a stone looking like the head of a prehistoric animal', said the club's chairman Yevgeny Svitov. 'He made a photo of the discovery and showed it to us. One source claimed it had a 'toothy grin'.

A TRILLION TONS OF METHANE INTO OUR ATMOSPHERE? A NEW STUDY

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New study on rising temperatures and

 the release of Siberian methane into the atmosphere

 

Study of Siberian permafrost caves shows global warming of just 1.5C 'would pump out a TRILLION tonnes of methane and CO2'

 

An ice hall in the Ledyanaya Lenskaya Cave: Stalactites and stalagmites only grow in the presence of liquid water. By dating them researchers worked out when they last grew and what the global temperatures were

 

U.N. studies show global temperatures have already risen by 0.7C

Huge increase in levels of CO2 could accelerate global warming

Infrastructure built on top of permafrost across the world would collapse

Governments currently committed to no more than 2C climate change

A little increase in global temperatures could unleash catastrophe. The Earth warming process feeds on itself. A small increase past a certain point could release unimaginable amounts of methane, now frozen in Siberian permafrost. 

Methane in the atmosphere would then act as a trigger for more global warming, precipitating a catastrophe.

Climate change is a fact, and it has been so for four and a half billion years. Ours is a living planet, and so it evolves, it suffers from crises, it adapts, it changes constantly.

In spite of disagreements over planet cooling and warming aside, present conditions point to global warming. I live in Canada and Arctic ice IS MELTING. 

Maybe these conditions will reverse, maybe not. And if they do not,  even small increases in global temperatures could unleash a catastrophe, once stored methane evaporates into the atmosphere.

A temperature increase of only 1.5 C could accelerate melting of Siberian permafrost adding 1,000 gigatones of carbon dioxide and methane to our atmosphere.