Geomorphology: The Batagai crater in Yakutia is growing by a million cubic meters per year
Russian scientists have assessed the growth rate of the Batagai failure, which is located in the Verkhoyansk region of Yakutia. It appeared only 60 years ago and is rapidly growing in size. Experts call it the world’s largest permafrost crater, and journalists have nicknamed it “the Siberian gate to hell.” If its growth is not stopped, it will completely engulf the neighboring valley over the next two decades.
What is the Batagai failure and why is it growing?
The Batagai failure (or crater) appeared in the 1960s. According to the most common version, there used to be a taiga in its place, but then the forest was cut down to clear the way for all-terrain vehicles. It soon turned out that this should not have been done. Without trees to hold back the melting permafrost, the land began to sag.
There are also other opinions. The Yakut publication Ulus.Media claims that the hollow from which the crater will grow could be found on maps already in 1947. “In 1969, a team of geologists discovered that this hollow showed signs of soil erosion; it had expanded by five meters,” writes Olga Teterina from the newspaper Vesti Verkhoyanya. “At the same time, no deforestation was carried out here.”
Whatever the reason, the underground ice began to melt. The result is a depression, the depth of which now reaches one hundred meters and the length of about a kilometer. A video taken from a drone in 2023 allows you to assess its scale. The footage published on the Internet shows a crater dotted with streams and hills, the edges of which are overgrown with young trees.
The melting of the permafrost that appeared on the surface, landslides and soil subsidence on Batagaika have not stopped all these years and are unlikely to stop in the foreseeable future. “Every year everything starts anew as soon as the temperature rises above zero,” explains Professor at the University of Southampton Mary Edwards. “Once something like this is exposed, it’s very difficult to stop.”
The crater is growing by a million cubic meters per year
Scientists from Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosova stated that the thermokarst depression in the Verkhoyansk region of Yakutia, nicknamed the “Siberian gate to hell,” is rapidly increasing.
The results of another study of the Batagai crater, in which specialists from Moscow State University participated, were published in the June issue of the scientific journal Geomorphology. The authors of the work used satellite imagery, remote sensing and laboratory samples collected in the field to estimate the extent of the expansion of the depression.
Researchers believe that the volume of the Batagai crater increases by about a million cubic meters every year. Two-thirds of this figure comes from melting ice.
per 1 million
cubic meters
the crater grows every year
The work also provides estimates of other scientists regarding various parts of the crater. According to a 2013 publication, the ice was retreating at a rate of 7 to 15 meters per year. In a 2020 publication, the speed was estimated at 11.3 – 14.9 meters per year. A 2016 publication claimed that the crater is growing up to 30 meters per year.
As stated by the leading researcher at the Institute of Permafrost Studies named after. P.I. Melnikov SB RAS Nikita Tananaev, who did not take part in the study, at this rate the Batagai crater will absorb the neighboring valley over the next two decades.
Why is the growth of the Batagay failure dangerous?
Russian scientists named the reason for the rapid increase in the crater as the melting of permafrost. It is caused by the warming observed in the Verkhoyansk region: the average air temperature has increased significantly compared to the previous level.
Alexander Kizyakov, a member of the Department of Cryolithology and Glaciology at Moscow State University, emphasized that an increase in the crater can provoke the release of greenhouse gases.
Already, the melting of permafrost is releasing four to five thousand tons of organic carbon from the depression. This cannot but affect the climate
Expanding the “Hell Gate” could also change the local river system. Already, the thawing of permafrost is increasing the erosion of the banks of the Batagai River, which, in turn, negatively affects the Yana River, the main water artery of the surrounding area.
However, the study authors noted that the Batagai crater will not expand indefinitely. As they write, the melting of permafrost has almost reached the bedrock lying at the base of the crater. Thus, the depression can only grow along the edges and up the slope until it collides with other bedrock in those directions.
Moreover, the increase in Batagaika may stop. To do this, according to scientists, the temperature in the area of the failure must return to the level observed before the warming.
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