Mysterious stripes spotted over Russia in satellite images — and NASA is perplexed

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Scientists can't agree on why these hills in the Russian Arctic ripple with stripes.

Mysterious stripes spotted over Russia in satellite images — and NASA is perplexed : Read more

 

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QUOYE
One possible explanation is written in the icy ground. This region of the Central Siberian Plateau spends about 90% of the year covered in permafrost, according to NASA, though it occasionally thaws for brief intervals. Patches of land that continuously freeze, thaw and freeze again have been known to take on strange circular or stripy designs called patterned ground, scientists reported in a study published in January 2003 in the journal Science. The effect occurs when soils and stones naturally sort themselves during the freeze-thaw cycle.
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Seems a reasonable start.

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