Two More Mysterious Siberian Craters Discovered. A couple weeks ago, scientists were made aware of a massive crater in the permafrost of Yamal, Siberia.
They're currently analyzing the crater to understand the origins of the 30-meter-wide hole, but no definitive cause has been identified. Curiouser and curiouser, two new smaller craters have been discovered that seem to have arisen under similarly mysterious conditions. The Siberian Times reports that one of the craters is also located in Yamal and the other is to the east in the Taymyr Peninsula. The second Yamal crater is about 15 meters wide and has a small icy lake at the bottom. Unlike the original crater, there were witnesses when this was formed on September 27, 2013, although there is some discrepancy about what happened.
A Mineral Mystery in the Driest Place on Earth. During his travels in South America in 1835, Charles Darwin came to the point where “the desert of Atacama commences, where nothing can exist.”
Considered the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert receives less than 1 to 2 mm of rainfall each year. The only thing growing, it seems, is one of the world’s strangest mineral deposits (pictured).