In a unique observation, some images of a phenomenon clicked by a NASA satellite orbiting the Earth has taken the scientists by surprise.
The images, taken by satellite Landsar-8 over several years, were recently shared by the space agency NASA on its Earth Observatory website.
The pictures show presence of an odd landscape in the cold Arctic depths of Siberia in Russia, near the Markha River with widespread ripples.
According to a Firstpost report, the images show ripples on land on either side of the Markha river. Alternating light and dark stripes give it an optical illusion-like quality.
“The effect, which is visible in all four seasons, is more noticeable in the winter, when white snow gives an even more striking contrast to the pattern,” NASA said in the statement.
However, the space agency is not sure what causes the pattern on the Siberian ground.
One reason given by NASA is the frigid temperatures in the region. With many Siberian slopes spending 90 per cent of the year covered in permafrost that occasionally thaws for brief intervals, there is a continuous freeze-thaw-freezes cycle at work.
This could take on strange circular or striped designs called patterned ground as stones sort themselves out in each freeze-thaw cycle, the statement said.
The space agency maintained that the other examples patterned ground are far smaller than the Siberian specimen. The second reason offered by the agency is surface erosion.
Geologist Thomas Crafford, with the US Geological Survey, told NASA that “the stripes resemble a pattern in sedimentary rock known as layer cake geology, which happens when melting snow or rain runs downhill, chipping away, and flushing pieces of sedimentary rock into piles. The resulting slabs of sediment look a lot like slices of a layer cake.”
Crafford further added that the darker stripes represent deeper areas, with the lighter stripes representing flatter areas. Exactly what causes the strange stripes will remain a mystery until the site can be studied up close.
