Strange streaks spotted by NASA satellite Russian baffle scientist

A NASA satellite orbiting the earth taking pictures has seen something that scientists have dropped in the cold Arctic fields of Siberia in Russia. Near the Markha River in Siberia, there are rays on earth that scientists do not fully understand. NASA recently posted new images of the strange landscape on the Earth Observatory website, taken with the Landsat 8 satellite over several years.

The images show land on either side of the river with dark and light stripes respectively. The weird effect is visible in all four seasons but is more pronounced in the winter when white snow makes even more difference to the pattern. NASA is not entirely sure what is causing the pattern on Siberian soil.

One possible explanation for the frigid temperature in the region spending 90 percent of the year is covered by a climate that sometimes melts for short periods. NASA says that land that freezes, thaws and freezes again can form a strange round or striped design called patterned earth. The effect is due to the natural inclination of stones to settle themselves over a freeze-thaw cycle.

NASA acknowledges that other examples of patterned earth tend to be much smaller in scale than that seen in Siberia. Another possible explanation for the strange patterns is surface erosion. Geologist Thomas Crafford, with a U.S. geological survey, told NASA that the strips resemble a pattern in a sedimentary rock known as a covered cake geology.

These patterns occur when snow or melted water runs down a slope, sloping away and flowing pieces of sedimentary rock into hills. This process can build up sedimentary tiles that resemble slices of coated cake. Crafford says the darker stripes represent deeper areas, with the lighter stripes representing flatter areas. Exactly what causes the strange streaks to remain a mystery until the site is closely examined.

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