Bizarre Natural Phenomena Vol. 52 - When Your Lawn Gets Acne (Grass Waterbeds)

ruth-girl (71)in #steemstem • 6 years ago

Who said acne is just a teenage nightmare? Who said that annoying blisters pop out out of the blue to mess only with your psychology? Why should only humans have their porcelain face "spoiled" with ugly pimples that when squeezed it feels like Hell is vomiting? (hmm, pretty graphic, huh? I can be like super disgusting if I want to).

@trumpman is to blame for today's phenomenon ladies and gents, as some time ago he sent me this weird but awkwardly satisfying video of huge "Grass Blisters" popping.

As you may have noticed, these pimples have no puss but water inside. They are nothing more than a "mat" of grass sitting over a layer of water. The phenomenon is called a grass waterbed, lawn blisters or turf blister.

Image from: pexels.com

Why do they happen?

There are two explanations so far, depending on the place where you find them. Grass waterbeds found on areas like golf courses or your garden probably occur because of the plastic sheeting laid over bad soil. The plastic sheet is meant to cover the bad soil in order for good, healthy soil to be poured on top. Grass is then planted and growing and looking green and beautiful until...

A water pipe breaks or for some other reason you have water running underground, below the platic sheeting. In this case, water builds up and forms a big liquid bubble ready to burst upon receiving pressure [2, 3, 4].

Another possibility would be for natural gases to accumulate underneath the grass layer, thus forming a bubble of air. When the bubble bursts, all the trapped gas escapes into the atmosphere. The second scenario is much much worse and dangerous [1].

Image from: pixabay.com

The case of Russia

Back in 2016 scientists discovered 15 such "patches" of bouncy grass on the Arctic Bely island (northern Siberia). When they pierced one of them, gases started releasing into the atmosphere. In their attempt to explain the phenomenon, they measured the gas emissions and found that the CO2 emissions were 20 higher than normal and CH4 (methane) was almost 200 times higher [5].

One year later, the number has risen alarmingly and there are 7,000 such gas bubbles counted. Scientists spread over the area and explored the peninsulas of Yamal and Gydan and found that the phenomenon does not occur only on Bely island [6].

The explanation

One plausible theory is that summer heat has caused the melting of the Siberian permafrost. Within it lots of archaea and bacteria live, rising the amounts of underground CO2 and CH4. As the permafrost starts becoming liquid, the organic matter it contains is broken down and therefore the gases mentioned above slowly make it out to the atmosphere through these peculiar "gas pimples". The souvenir? Craters on the ground that can reach up to 30 meters in diameter [7, 8].

The danger

Increased methane emissions translate into rapid increase in the planet's temperatures, as methane has a better ability to trap heat, making the greenhouse effect even worse [7]. Another risk is for those gas pockets to form under gas pipes near residential areas and cause damage (if not explosions) to the network [9].

One thing is for sure, these gas bubbles need to be studied and controlled.