Imperma-frost

You call it methane, we call it “nature’s bouncy house”

By Kate Yoderon Jul 22, 2016Share

Bouncy houses are pretty cool — but not necessarily something we’d want to find in nature.

Siberia’s melting permafrost has led to some puzzling geological marvels: first giant sinkholes, and now, grassy methane trampolines. After a particularly warm summer, hitherto frozen tundra has begun to thaw, releasing greenhouse gases that were held captive beneath the ground for millennia.

The Siberian Times reports that methane and CO2 spew out of these waterbed-like bubbles when popped. Researchers found 15 of them on an island off Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula — and judging from this clip, we expect they gleefully stomped on every last one of them. I mean, we would.

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You call it methane, we call it “nature’s bouncy house”