The Siberian crater Batagayka, nicknamed by the locals "the gates of hell", is catastrophically expanding. And this worries scientists around the world.
According to Julian Marton (British University of Sussex), the Siberian mega-depression, which began to form in the sixties of the last century due to the massive deforestation of Siberian forests, can lead to dire consequences for the entire Earth. It is only the beginning of a huge process of melting permafrost, which will be accompanied by the release of methane into the atmosphere in huge quantities. The Northern Hemisphere stores up to fifty percent of the planet's methane reserves. And this gas causes a much more powerful greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide, with which we are fighting so unsuccessfully today, trying to save the Earth.
At present, the Batagayka crater is about a kilometer long and ninety meters deep. However, the "hell gate" continues to grow, an average of fifteen meters per year. In abnormally warm years, this growth sometimes doubles.
It is almost impossible to stop this process, explains the German scientist Frank Gunter (the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam), since the world does not yet have the technology for this. Researchers have so far only to be content with the study of a dangerous crater for the planet and observe the catastrophic change in the Siberian climate.