A mysterious gigantic sinkhole has appeared in Russia – and nobody knows where it came from or how deep it is.

It opened up in the peninsula of Yamal, a place which locals call the ‘end of the world’.

At 80 metres wide, the sinkhole is believed to be the biggest ever spotted in the country and could be one of the deepest ever recorded in the world.

Speculation of what has caused the phenomenon include rumours of a crashed UFO, a meteorite hitting the earth, global warming or a sinkhole caused by collapsing rock.

But experts are confident that there is an scientific explanation for the crater, which is large enough to fit several Mi-8 helicopters into it.

An expedition has been organised by the Yamal authorities, and will include two experts from the Centre for the Study of the Artic and one from Cryosphere Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

They plan to take samples of soil, air and water from the scene and will be accompanied by a specialist from the Emergencies Ministry.

A spokesman for the ministry’s Yamal branch ruled out a meteorite but said it was too early to say what cause the gigantic hole in the earth.

“We can definitely say that it is not a meteorite. No details yet,” said a spokesman to the Siberian Times.

The footage was captured by pilots working for a gas company in the area and shows a deep tunnel structure with soil around the hole that looks like it has been thrown out of it.

Originally thought to be a fake, the hole has allegedly been established as a real phenomenon and is thought to have been formed around two years ago.

This is not the first time the phenomenon has happened, take at some other sinkholes here.

It’s also not the first strange thing to happen in Siberia this week – recently hailstones the size of golf balls forced sunbathers to run for their lives.

Source : IrishMirror