It was discovered in 1991. The Batagay crater, in Siberia, is closely monitored by scientists. And its evolution is not reassuring, according to a study published in the journal Geomorphology. This crater is actually a mega-sink, the largest on the planet, caused by permafrost degradation due to rising temperatures and precipitation in the Arctic.
Problematically, this crevasse is widening more and more and in doing so, releasing greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide previously trapped in the permafrost, in turn contributing to global warming. Hence the nickname “Gate to Hell”.
The crevasse, which measured 790 meters wide in 2014, is now 990, reports the magazine Sciences et Vie, a gain of 200 meters in ten years.
As Batagay Crater subsides, it exposes layers of permafrost that had been frozen for thousands of years. This is the equivalent of 14 pyramids of Giza which have melted since the appearance of this subsidence. Since 2014, this represents a volume of one million cubic meters per year.
According to the models carried out by the researchers, the quantities of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere could even be underestimated.
It is the snake that bites its tail: global warming accelerates the melting of permafrost and the latter, by letting carbon dioxide escape, accentuates the overall rise in temperatures.
If the enlargement and subsidence of the Batagay crater increases rapidly, the researchers however estimate that the permafrost remaining inside the crevasse would only be a few meters thick, limiting its expansion.
