'Hell's Gate' in Russia gets bigger every year

The 990 m wide Batagay crater in the Far East is continuously expanding, with the volume of frozen ground melting each year reaching up to one million cubic ^meters .

Batagay crater seen from above. (Photo: Alexander Kizyakov).

"Hell's Gate" , a giant crater in Siberia , expands by one million cubic meters every year as the permafrost melts, according to research published in the journal Geomorphology, Live Science reported on May 6. The crater named Batagay (also known as Batagaika) consists of a circular cliff that was first discovered via satellite images in 1991 after part of a hillside collapsed in the Yana Uplands region of northern Yakutia, Russia. The exposed layer of permafrost lies in the remains of a hillside that has been frozen for 650,000 years. This is the oldest permafrost in Siberia and the second in the world.

New research shows that the cliff face of Batagay crater is shrinking at a rate of 12 meters per year as frozen soil thaws. The collapsed part of the hillside 55m lower than the cliff face is also rapidly melting and sinking.

Rapid thaw zones are spreading and increasing in the Arctic and ice-rich terrain near the North Pole, said a research team led by scientist Alexander I. Kizyakov of Lomonosov Moscow University. However, the loss of ice and sediment from the Batagay crater is especially high due to the massive size of the depression, which will span 990 m by 2023.

The crater was 790m wide in 2014, then grew another 200m in less than 10 years. Researchers knew it was expanding, but this is the first time they have calculated the volume of frozen soil melting at the crater's rim. They did so through examining satellite images, taking field measurements, and using laboratory test data on samples from Batagay.

The results show that the amount of ice and sediment equivalent to more than 14 Great Pyramids of Giza has melted at the mouth of the lake since it collapsed. Melting rates have been relatively stable over the past decade, occurring mainly along the cliff face at the western, southern and southeastern edges of the crater.