Scientists have discovered that the "Gate of Hell", a crater in Siberia, has expanded faster than expected due to climate change, confirming that it is causing problems for the surrounding areas.
The Patajika collapse, located in the frozen Yana Highlands, covers about 200 acres of land and can even be clearly seen in satellite images taken from space.
The crater was first discovered in photographs taken in 1991, and has been growing in width and depth since then, as global warming causes permafrost (frozen soil deposits) to melt.
In a new study published in Geomorphology, glaciologist Alexander Kizyakov and his team used remote sensing, field data from laboratory samples taken in 2019 and 2023, to create a 3D display of the speed of permafrost melting.
They discovered that the hole was 300 feet deep, and that there was not much room for it to grow deeper because the melting permafrost had almost reached the rock at the bottom. However, the hole continues to expand outward at an "accelerating rate."
“The volume of bowl-shaped retrograde melt subsidence (RTS) is increasing by about 1 million cubic meters per year,” Kiziakov wrote in the study.
This will pose problems for the nearby Patagai River, as it will increase riverbank erosion and affect the surrounding environment.
Kiziakov and his team noted that the rapidly expanding crater could also increase greenhouse gas emissions, as frozen nutrients melt and are released into the atmosphere.
They estimate that between 4,000 and 5,000 tons of previously frozen organic carbon are currently released annually, and this number is likely to increase each year.
It is quite surprising.
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