In pics | ‘Gateway to underworld’: World’s biggest permafrost crater thaws due to climate change

The Batagaika crater, the world’s biggest permafrost crater, situated in Russia’s Far East is thawing, reported Reuters on Friday (July 21), which has led scientists to raise an alarm as this “mega slump” already threatens cities and towns across northern and northeastern Russia. 

Not only does it threaten Russian towns and cities but also the planet, as scientists have noted that the “enormous quantity” of organic carbon released due to this thawing into the atmosphere may further fuel global warming. 

According to NASA, permafrost is any ground that remains completely frozen at zero degrees Celsius for at least two years straight. These permanently frozen grounds are made with a combination of soil, rocks and sand held together by ice. 

Permafrosts are most common in regions near the North and South poles and cover large parts of the Earth, according to the American space agency.

Notably, almost a quarter of the land area in the Northern Hemisphere has permafrost underneath but while the ground is frozen the regions with permafrost are not always covered in snow. 

Locals near the Batagaika crater call the one-kilometre-long massive gash in the Siberian landscape the “gateway to the underworld.” The crater which first began to appear in the 1960s was a result of deforestation in the area which led to the loss of ground ice that in turn caused the Earth to erode and the land to sink. 

“We locals call it ‘the cave-in’,” local resident and crater explorer Erel Struchkov told Reuters. “It developed in the 1970s, first as a ravine. Then by thawing in the heat of sunny days, it started to expand,” he added.

The locals have also noted the crater’s rapid growth. “(Two years ago the edge) was about 20-30 metres away from this path. And now, apparently, it is much closer,” said Struchkov, according to Reuters. 

What locals in Russia’s Sakha Republic call the “gateway to the underworld” scientists called “a mega-slump,” is growing. A report by Reuters citing Russian scientists said that the country is warming at least 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world and also melting the long-frozen tundra that covers about 65 per cent of Russia. 

Nikita Tananayev, lead researcher at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk, said the slump’s expansion is “a sign of danger.” Recently, this expansion has threatened to affect cities and towns across northern and northeastern Russia by buckling roadways, splitting apart houses, and disrupting pipelines.  

“In future, with increasing temperatures and with higher anthropogenic pressure, we will see more and more of those mega-slumps forming, until all the permafrost is gone,” Tananayev told Reuters. 

While the exact expansion rate of the Batagaika crater remains unknown, the Russian scientist said the soil under the slump, which is about 100 metres deep in some places, contains an “enormous quantity” of organic carbon, which is releasing greenhouse gases stored in the thawed soil into the atmosphere further fuelling the planet’s warming. 

“With an increasing air temperature we can expect (the crater) will be expanding at a higher rate,” Tananayev told Reuters, adding that it will lead to more climate warming in the upcoming years.