The #Batagay or #Batagaika crater in Siberia often referred to as the "Doorway to the Underworld" or the
"Gateway to Hell" is a
#permafrost #megaslump in Yakutia, Russia.

Dimensions vary by source, but the site covers around 192 acres (78 hectares)
and stretches two thirds of a mile (one kilometer) in length.

Logged of trees in the 1960s, its walls reach a depth of around 180 feet (55 meters)
and expose 650,000 years of geologic history.

Since first spotted in the 1960s by surveillance satellites, the crater has grownfrom an insignificant gully to a massive depression at an accelerating rate.

According to Sarah Cadieux, Sr. Lecturer and Associate Director of Environmental Science of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
the crater area increased by almost three times from 1991 to 2018.

The Batagaika crater isn’t a crater at all,
it’s a #retrogressive #thaw #slump, a type of terrain called #thermokarst that occurs in areas underlain by permafrost.

No longer cooled by forest cover, the slump has become a self-sustaining #feedback #loop,
a portion of the ecosystem which has tipped into a new state.

This is not an isolated case, but rather a rapidly growing problem in the Arctic as
it warms three to four times the rate of the rest of the planet since 1979.

Called Arctic or polar #amplification, this phenomenon is a well established fact measured by instruments,
confirmed in climate computer models,
and reinforced by paleoclimate records.

Powerful anecdotal evidence occurred in the scorching heatwave of 2020 that saw the Russian town of Verkhoyansk
which lies north of the Arctic Circle hit a stunning 38° C (100.4° F) on June 20.

2020 also saw overall temperatures in the Siberian basin rise to nearly 11° F above normal,
shocking scientists and releasing #ancient #methane
not from ancient organic material,
but from #limestone.

Elevated methane in wetlands was expected, but not from #outgassing #rock.

A year later in 2021 Europe’s climate change service Copernicus Sentinel satellites recorded 118° F (48° C) in the Sakha Republic of Arctic Siberia,
and records continue to fall with temperatures over 100° F in 2023 as reported by CNN.

@gdeihl

https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/permafrost-maybe-not