In Siberia, the “gateway to the underworld” continues to expand

(ORDO NEWS) — Every year in Siberia, the Batagay crater increases, which the locals call the gateway to the underworld. The increase in the crater is associated with the active melting of permafrost.

Climate change leads to significant changes in the landscape of the territory. The Batagay crater, which is located in Eastern Siberia, was discovered back in the 1960s and has been expanding very rapidly since then.

Outwardly, the object was a small ravine, while today its width is more than 900 meters, that is, almost a kilometer. There is some danger to permafrost in the Arctic: it too may soon begin to disappear.

The rise in temperature has doubled compared to 30 years ago. For scientists, age-old ice is a kind of time capsule that reveals valuable information about the past of our planet: climate, ecosystems, and so on. Recent studies have shown that the Batagay crater contains the most ancient permafrost that can only be found in Eurasia. Its age is 650 thousand years.

Remaining ice will help scientists figure out how plants and permafrost have responded to significant warming in the past. We can say that the present situation opened the doors for scientists to the world of the past, when the climate was either cold or, on the contrary, warm, said Thomas Opel from the Institute for Polar and Marine Research. Alfred Wegener.

Climate change is hitting all of Siberia. Because of the accumulated methane gas in the ice on Yamal and the Gydan Peninsula, dips more than ten meters deep have arisen. Experts are also concerned about carbon emissions. Plants are unlikely to be able to absorb it to maintain balance, but they believe the tipping point has arrived: 600 million tons more carbon has been emitted over the past decade than can be absorbed.

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