Siberia is a place where a number of unique natural phenomena and landscapes occur, one of which is Batagaika Crater. This crater continues to widen and the cause is still mysterious. This area is also considered a local population as the entrance to the underground world.
Batagaika Crater has a complicated shape. He became one of the very few of the largest Permafrost crater in the world. Quoted from History of Yesday, this crater is also the only crater that has continued to expand for the past 60 years.
History of Batagaika Crater
This crater began to form again in the 1960s after most of the Siberian forests were cleared. The land can still be restrained because the land of Permafrost and its territory is less touched by humans. The tall trees that stand close to each other shade the frozen land from the sun.
Since the trees were cut down and there was an increase in temperature due to global warming, Permafrost began to melt. Usually, the crater is formed by a meteor that hit the earth. Well, Permafrost Crater such as Batagaika is formed due to an explosion caused by an air bag that is stuck between frozen soils.
During the expansion of the crater, scientists who explore the area are not too aware of it. Considering that there was not much information about this crater before the 1980s, it is not known exactly how many people realize that there has been a natural shift.
Scientists who recently analyzed the inside of the mouth of the crater, found that this was actually a gate. Not to hell or other world underground as believed by the residents around of course, but the gate to a natural database that stores climate data for years.
This crater does its work in describing how global temperature has increased for years, which also correlates with the growth and expansion of the crater. This data can be revealed through a layer of soil more than 200 thousand years old, although the lower layer is actually 650 thousand years old.
'Underground World Gate' develops
From the absence, the crater has succeeded in widening as far as 1 kilometer and its depth reaches 86 meters. The expansion of the crater in the 1940s occurred very significantly because of the high increase in fuel consumption which was mainly caused by World War II.
The effect of the industrial revolution also affected the widening of the Batagaika Crater. In the era of the Industrial Revolution, because the manufacturing process used a lot of fossil fuels, creating carbon dioxide which led to an increase in global temperature.
Then during the 1980s the crater began to expand 10 meters per year. In recent years, expansion has developed to 30 meters per year.
Based on NASA satellite recordings for years, we can see how fast the crater is enlarged. The first picture was taken in 1985 when the crater was more like a long mountain. Then the second picture from 2013, and the last from 2021. Comparison of expansion between 1985 and 2013 and between 2013 to 2021 was quite significant.
Is the Batagaika Crater still widening?
The increase in expansion rate is clear and this is most likely nothing compared to the expansion that will occur in 2030 when global temperatures can reach 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Scientists say that the ice layer stopped the expansion of the crater until the 1960s. The more interesting question to ask is which crater is waiting to appear as soon as Permafrost disappears in another part of the world.
The Batagaika Crater is located in Siberia
It was created by Thawing of Perma Frost and Flooding which caused the Land to Sink Creating the Giant Crater
It is 1km long and 100m deep
Scientists say it gets 10m larger every year pic.twitter.com/d8ht3ie2bw
- Alexander's cartographer (@cartographer_s) March 9, 2021
As long as the knowledge of science behind this phenomenon, the expansion of the crater cannot be stopped and can even increase to the point where the expansion rate will be very fast, so that it will cause interference with tectonic plates, causing large earthquakes.
This crater is on a natural path to eat and swallow everything around it, without any way to stop. Apart from how advanced our technology is, we will never be able to stop nature.
