The structure is named after the near-flowing Batagayka, a right tributary of the river Yana. The land began to sink due to the thawing permafrost in the 1960s after the surrounding forest was cleared. Flooding also contributed to the enlargement of the crater.
What caused the Batagaika crater?
How did the Batagaika crater form?
The Batagaika crater first started to form as a result of deforestation in the area in the 1960s. Without the cooling effects of the trees, permafrost in the soil started to melt during warmer months, causing the soil to collapse and slump.
What is the Batagay crater?
In remote northern Siberia, the world's largest permafrost landslide (i.e., the Batagay megaslump — also known as the Batagaika Crater) reveals that ancient permafrost has survived past episodes of intense global warming but is sensitive to human-induced disturbance – according to a group of international experts.
What are scientists finding in the Batagaika crater?
Treasures From the Deep With each slump and collapse, the Batagaika Crater exposes more of the Earth's history in the region. As the walls peel back on the world's largest permafrost crater, thousands of years of history are exposed, unearthing long-buried strata lines of sediment and prehistoric vegetation.
How deep is the Batagaika crater?
282 feet THE BATAGAIKA CRATER This huge crater is the largest of its kind: almost 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) long and 86 meters (282 feet) deep. Located roughly 10 kilometers Southeast of the town of Batagay (Yakutia), on the left bank of the Batagay River, the Batagaika crater has a characteristic shape resembling a tadpole.
Is Batagaika a volcanic crater?
The Batagaika crater is a thermokarst depression in the Chersky Range area. The biggest permafrost crater in the world, it administratively belongs to the Sakha Republic Russia and is in its Verkhoyansky District….
| Batagaika crater | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 67°34′48″N 134°46′17″E |
What is the largest crater on Earth?
the Vredefort Crater Some of the largest impacts ever to occur on Earth are barely visible to us today (at least not in the traditional 'hole in the ground' sense.) In South Africa, the Vredefort Crater, also known as the Vredefort Dome is the world's largest known impact crater, according to NASA Earth Observatory.
How big is the Batagaika crater?
about 1 km long The Crater's Size A Batagaika Crater, Russia story Now about 1 km long, 800 m wide, and 50 m deep, the crater also features a 70-m vertical ice wall on the southwestern edge.
Where is the doorway to the underworld?
Siberia In the vast landscape of eastern Siberia there is a massive hole in the ground known as the "doorway to the underworld" triggered from climate change in the recent decades. The permafrost ground near the Yana River Basin has been warming lately, causing large scale changes in the local topography and ecology.