Mysterious stripes spotted over Russia in satellite images -- and NASA is perplexed
By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer 5 hours ago
Scientists can't agree on why these hills in the Russian Arctic ripple with stripes.
Swirling hills in northern Russia have scientists perplexed.
(Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory/ Landsat 8)
Near the Markha River in Arctic Siberia, the earth ripples in ways that scientists don't fully understand.
Earlier this week, NASA researchers posted a series of satellite images of the peculiar wrinkled landscape to the agency's Earth Observatory website. Taken with the Landsat 8 satellite over several years, the photos show the land on both sides of the Markha River rippling with alternating dark and light stripes. The puzzling effect is visible in all four seasons, but it is most pronounced in winter, when white snow makes the contrasting pattern even more stark.
Why is this particular section of Siberia so stripy? Scientists aren't totally sure, and several experts offered NASA conflicting explanations.
One possible explanation is written in the icy ground. This region of the Central Siberian Plateau spends about 90% of the year covered in permafrost, according to NASA, though it occasionally thaws for brief intervals. Patches of land that continuously freeze, thaw and freeze again have been known to take on strange circular or stripy designs called patterned ground, scientists reported in a study published in January 2003 in the journal Science. The effect occurs when soils and stones naturally sort themselves during the freeze-thaw cycle.
The stripes covering a portion of the Central Siberian Plateau vary by season.
(Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)
More:
https://www.livescience.com/stripe-pattern-arctic-siberia-mystery.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
