Massive Crater in Siberia Is Worsening Due to Climate Change, Scientists Say

Ada Carr
Published: December 28,2016

With the ominous nickname of the “gateway to the underworld,” a gargantuan crater growing in Siberia is growing rapidly due to climate change, according to researchers. 

 

The Batagaika crater has sunken to depths of nearly 400 feet and has been growing at a rate of more than 60 feet per year, according to Motherboard. Since its creation in the early 1990s, climate change has worsened and caused heat waves that melted layers of glacial ice. 

 

This melting caused the land underneath to collapse, creating the gaping depression. 

 

Scientists are calling the Batagaika crater a “megaslump,” which is an enormous void. When permafrost rapidly thaws, it creates rifts and causes “scar zones” that sink into the saturated land.  

 

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“I expect that the Batagaika megaslump will continue to grow until it runs out of ice or becomes buried by slumped sediment,” Dr. Julian Murton told Motherboard. “It’s quite likely that other megaslumps will develop in Siberia if the climate continues to warm or get wetter.”

 

These craters pose what some researchers have referred to as a “climate time bomb.”

 

The Arctic’s permafrost contains both methane and carbon dioxide, which could be hazardous to our environment if released. 

 

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, methane could have 25 times the impact of carbon dioxide over the next century. An increase in methane emissions would have a disastrous effect on the planet’s already-troubled atmosphere, as the greenhouse gas is 21 times better at trapping heat. 

 

According to Murton, the last time Siberia saw this magnitude of slumping was 10,000 years ago. Today’s greenhouse gas emissions, which have climbed to 400 parts per million, have surpassed the carbon dioxide levels of that time, which reached levels of 280 parts per million. 

 

MORE: Mysterious Giant Hole in Siberia, Russia

 

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