It was reported that World’s biggest permafrost crater in Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Siberia, Russia, Batagaika crater (sometimes known as Batagaika depression), melts. The melting of the permafrost crater caused the land around the crater to begin to sink.
The thawing of the permafrost crater was marked as an alert by scientists. The land that began to sink is considered as endangering side effects of the thawing. It has a high possibility of harming the cities and towns throughout northern and northeastern Russia.
For your information, permafrost is a thick layer of soil that remains frozen for a long time. Even though it is frozen for a long time, permafrost can thaw or melt. It can be caused by human activities that can provoke the heating up, climate change, and more. The interesting fact about permafrost is they are not covered in snow, but yet it is frozen.
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Scientists confirmed that Russia is warming about 2.5 times faster than other places in the world. So the warming up caused by Russia has melted the long-frozen tundra that covers about 65% of the country’s landmass and released greenhouse gasses stored in the thawed soil.
Chief Researcher at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk, Nikita Tananayev, said that this condition can be considered “a sign of danger”. The thawed land started to expand for a couple of months, causing some symptoms to watch out for, such as disrupting pipelines, jagged roads, and many more symptoms that can threaten cities and towns in Russia. These symptoms can worsen if the temperature continues to heat up.
Fortunately, the locals that live in Sakha have taken note to be aware of the thawing of the Batagaika crater located nearby their homes.
“In the future, with increasing temperatures and with higher anthropogenic pressure, we will see more and more of those mega-slumps forming, until all the permafrost is gone,” Tananayev explains.
