Yellow, Oily Snow Falls on Remote Russian Island--Gas and Oil Industry May Be to Blame
Yellow snow with a strong odor and an oily texture has covered a village on Russia’s Far East island of Sakhalin.
Samples of the snow have been sent to a chemical laboratory for tests, a local emergency official said, according to RIA-Novosti news agency.
Sabo is a town where earlier oil workers lived. But after an earthquake most of the citizens were moved to other places, now no more than 100 people live in Sabo.
The color, odor and texture of the snow may be a result of the environmental pollution caused by the island’s oil and natural gas industry. However, experts do nor rule out this could be caused by volcanic activity.