Near the Markha River in the Arctic Siberia, the earth spins in ways that scientists do not fully understand.
Earlier this week, NASA researchers posted a series of satellite images of the wrinkled landscape on the Earth Observatory’s website. Taken with the Landsat 8 satellite over several years, the photos show the terrain on both sides of the Markha River undulating with alternating dark and light stripes.
The puzzling effect is visible in all four seasons, but it is most pronounced in winter, when the white snow makes the contrasting pattern even stronger.
Striped whirlpools have puzzled scientists. (NASA Earth Observatory / Landsat 8)
Why is this special section of Siberia so striped? Scientists are not entirely sure and several experts have offered contradictory explanations to NASA.
In connection with: the 8 greatest mysteries of the Earth
A possible explanation is written in the frozen earth. This region of the Central Siberian Plateau spends about 9% of the year covered in permafrost, according to NASA, although it occasionally thaws for short intervals.
Bundles of freezing, thawing and continuously freezing earth have been known to adopt strange circular or striped patterns called patterned earth, scientists reported in a January 2003 study in the journal Science. The effect occurs when soils and stones are naturally sorted during the freeze-thaw cycle.
The stripes of the Central Siberian Plateau vary according to the season. (NASA Earth Observatory)
However, other examples of shaped earth – such as stone circles in Svalbard, Norway – tend to be much smaller in scale than the stripes seen in Siberia.
Another possible explanation is erosion. Thomas Crafford, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, told NASA that the stripes resemble a sedimentary rock pattern known as cake layer geology.
These patterns occur when melting snow or rain drips down, chipping and washing pieces of sedimentary rocks into piles. The process can reveal sediment plates that look like slices of layer cake, Crafford said, with darker stripes representing steeper areas and lighter stripes signifying flatter areas.
According to the picture above, this type of sedimentary stratification would stand out more in winter, when white snow leans on flatter areas, making them look even lighter. The pattern disappears as it approaches the river, where sediment accumulates in more uniform piles along the banks after millions of years of erosion, Crafford added.
This explanation seems to fit well, according to NASA. But until the region can be studied up close, it will remain one of those quintessential Siberian curiosities.
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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.