650,000-year-old 'gateway to the underworld' discovered in Siberia

European scientists have just proven that Batagay Crater, a natural structure called "the gate to the underworld" by Siberian people (Russia) , is also a gate that helps them "go back in time".

According to Live Science , new research led by paleontologist Thomas Opel from the Alfred Wgener Institute (Germany) shows that the giant sinkhole Batagay Crater can be used to recreate the Earth's ancient climate.

Because Batagay Crater contains a layer of permafrost that is up to 650,000 years old , the oldest in Siberia and the second oldest in the world, second only to an area in the Yukon region of Canada.

Batagay Crater - Photo: MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY (LOMONOSOV UNIVERSITY).

Batagay Crater is a massive collapsed hillside in the Yana Uplands of northern Yakutia, Russia , in the vast icy lands of Siberia and has long been known to locals as the "gateway to the underworld".

It stands out as a barren area of ​​larch and birch forests, where deforestation over the years combined with rising temperatures has caused more and more ice to flow in, making the entire sinkhole cover an area of ​​up to 0.8 km ² and become the largest ice sinkhole on Earth, with walls up to 55m high.

According to the paper published in Quaternary Research, the researchers used three methods to date the ice, including the classical method using radioactive carbon isotopes.

Serving as a safe reservoir for 650,000 years of glacial ice, Batagay Crater is a giant sedimentary pit that can reveal what happened to the environment and climate in the region, thanks to analysis of the chemical composition of the sediment layers.

Typically, scientists would use deep drilling techniques to pull up a long ice core, with layers of ice containing sediments from over the years. But the key is knowing where to drill – which is what this new study has done.

In addition, preliminary analysis also revealed two sedimentary 'gaps ,' with almost no ice in them, around 130,000 and 200,000 years ago. The first belongs to a known warm period, the second is unknown.

A detailed study of the changes before and after these two periods can help us understand more about modern climate change.