Arctic methane emissions permafrost thawing. Near the bottom of the first sinkhole, air contained unusually high concentrations of methane, according to tests conducted by the researchers. This hypothesis points to the destabilization of gas hydrates containing huge amounts of methane gas. According to researchers at Norway's Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate (CAGE), through a process called geothermal heat flux, the Siberian permafrost which extends to the seabed of the Kara Sea, a section of the Arctic Ocean between the Yamal Peninsula and Novaya Zemlya, is thawing. According to a CAGE researcher, Aleksei Portnov, Methane hydrate is leaking in an area of at least
Belaya Zemlya Belaya Zemlya is the point of the Franz Josef Archipelago that Valerian Albanov was trying to reach when he left the Svyataya Anna with part of the crew, but owing to the polar ice drift and the abundance of polynias along his route, he ended up far to the southwest in Alexandra Land. Belaya Zemlya is separated from the main Franz Josef group by a broad strait known as Proliv Severo Vostochnyy. Belaya Zemlya Belaya Zemlya (, literally "White Land") is a group of three cold, glaciated islands. It is a geographical subgroup of Franz Josef Land, Russian Federation. This