CROWDED around a hole in the ice, the dozen or so people clad in thick jackets could be local fishermen. But the rope winch, carefully lowering a long, fat pipe into the frigid Siberian water, hints that it is not dinner they are here to catch.
The men on the ice are researchers from the Limnological Institute in nearby Irkutsk, and the treasure they are after, hidden at the bottom of Lake Baikal, is a trove of white, ice-like chunks called methane hydrates. Put a flame next to them and they'll ignite, burning what may be the cleanest fossil fuel currently known.
For over a decade, scientists have trekked to this remote corner of the Russian wilderness from around the world, funded by governments eager to understand how to exploit these peculiar accumulations. "We've hosted scientists from everywhere – Japanese, Belgian, Indian and others," says Oleg Khlystov, a ...
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