Siberia is still very poorly understood. There are many interesting and mysterious places on the territory of Siberia, and one of them is a strange crater, which the locals call "the gate to the underworld."
The crater was named Batagayka - after the river of the same name, located not far from it. The crater is about 1000 meters long, about 800 meters wide, and about a hundred meters deep. But this thing can be called a "crater" rather conditionally - it is difficult to say how it appeared here.
There is no definite answer to this question, there are only a few assumptions. According to one of the versions, this crater began to appear here in the 60s of the last century - immediately after the local authorities cut down the entire forest for industrial use.
Some researchers believe that a large amount of vegetation kept the ground cool by casting a shadow over it. And after the trees were cut down, the earth gradually began to heat up.
It is known that a decent part of Russia is located on permafrost and this territory is no exception. Those. the crater can be considered a thermokarst formation.
The permafrost began to thaw due to the rise in ground temperature. And the earth began to sink sharply. Gradually, the crater began to increase in size, becoming longer and deeper from year to year. Also, deforestation has had a significant impact on the local climate.
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It is important to note that modern researchers do not understand everything about complex natural mechanisms, therefore it is difficult to predict the further consequences of such massive deforestation. It should be borne in mind that as a result of this logging, the climate in Siberia is gradually becoming warmer and more humid, which theoretically could lead to the formation of many such craters.
The worst thing will be if such things are formed on the site of existing settlements. But a decent part of Russia's infrastructure is built on permafrost - there is even a special method of construction in such difficult natural conditions.
And if the whole thing starts to melt, then no one will seem a little. However, such processes have their own benefits - at the bottom of the same Batagay crater, scientists discovered the remains of an ancient horse, whose age is about 4400 years.
Together with them, the remains of a bison, a mammoth and an ancient deer were discovered. One can only guess what archaeological treasures may be hidden in the layers of permafrost.
And they probably survived there very well, because in fact they were in a natural refrigerator and practically did not undergo decomposition processes.