Methane gas blowhole formation in Siberia proceeding ad infinitum

                                               Smaller methane craters now forming ad infinitum

Russia Today (RT) reports that smaller "baby" pits are now appearing around the margins of the large "gas blow holes" discovered last year on the Yamal Peninsula of northern Siberia.   The large central gas blowholes attracted global attention when they appeared, as they may be an indicator that Global Warming has progressed sufficiently that it is causing permafrost in Siberia to degrade and release large amounts of methane. 

The new report from RT that many smaller pits are now forming around the margins of the larger pits is consistent with the idea that the methane gas blow holes are forming as the result of large scale thermal degradation of permafrost.  Some have suggested the gas blow holes were "one-off" events connected to oil and gas drilling or some other non-climatic mechanism. but the creation of pit after pit in the months after the formation of the big central pit is more consistent with warming of permafrost as a consequence of Global Warming.  If this pattern repeats, then in coming years more large gas blow holes will form, and then more smaller gas blow blow holes and even smaller collapse pits will form around them,  until parts of the Siberian landscape begin to look like Swiss cheese.

The prospect of the creation of more and more central gas blow holes, followed by many many smaller gas blowholes and pits spreading across the Siberian landscape reminds me of Jonathan Swift's famous (1733) poem about fleas:

So nat'ralists observe, a flea 

Has smaller fleas that on him prey; 

And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em.   

And so proceeds Ad infinitum.

Here's my version

In far Siberia gas blow holes form 

When the permafrost gets too warm 

And then small blow holes do surround 

As still more methane leaves the ground 

Augustus De Morgan borrowed from Swift's idea to write a similar verse in 1872

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, 

And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.

And here is my variation on De Morgan's flea poem reset for the methane gas blowholes now beginning to spread across Siberia.

Great gas blow holes have little gas blow holes beside 'em 

And little holes have lesser holes, and so ad infinitum