A depression dubbed the ‘Gateway to Hell’ is growing by an alarming rate each year, claims scientists.
In 1991, satellite images first captured the gateway - officially known as The Batagay megaslump - in Siberia.
The biggest permafrost crater in the world administratively belongs to the Sakha Republic, Russia, and is situated in the Chersky Mountain Range area.
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It’s believed that the phenomenon, also called the Batagaika Crater, began forming in a ‘tad-pole shape’ in the 1960s.
At the time of the depression’s formation, it was thought to be just a one-kilometre-long gash that was just 328 feet (100 metres) deep.
Named after the tributary of the river Yana, the crater began to grow after the nearby area experienced intense flooding.
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Since its discovery, the sinking mass has begun to grow in size and is still expanding year-on-year at a dangerous rate.
In 2017, Mary Edwards of the University of Southampton told Nasa that she believed the process of erosion helps to increase the thermokarst crater.
“Below the cliff face, steep hills and gullies drop to Batagaika's floor,” she explained.
“As more of the material at the bottom of the slope melts and comes loose, a larger face is exposed to the air, which in turn increases the speed of permafrost thawing.
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“The crater will likely eat through the entire hillslope before it slows down. Every year as soon as temperatures go above freezing, it's going to start happening again.”
She added that once you’ve ‘exposed something like this’ it becomes extremely difficult to prevent further.
Now in a new study, published earlier this year, researchers have confirmed the Batagay Megaslump had grown by a staggering 35 million cubic feet (14.2 million cubic metres).
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As per Live Science, last year alone it stretched to 3,250 feet (990 m) wide
Considering the megaslump only measured 2,600 feet (790 m) wide in 2014, this is a sharp increase in size over the last decade.
Unsurprisingly, the origins of the anomaly are climate change-related.
Scientists have stated that the Batagay megaslump is the result of increasing temperatures which is melting permafrost (the frozen soil and rock that makes up the bulk of the Arctic landscape).
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As the globe increases in temperature, the permafrost melts further thus causing the Earth to loosen and slump.
Interestingly permafrost melting has a further negative impact on the planet as it releases a cacophony of greenhouse gasses.
The study claims that around 4000 to 5000 tons of previously permafrost-locked organic carbon is released every year.
Due to 65 percent of the ground in Russia being comprised of permafrost, the rising temperatures could be a real issue for the country in the future.
Furthermore, Professor Julian Murton, a geologist at the University of Sussex believes that we will see more thermokarst features popping up across the globe.
Previously speaking to The Independent, he said: "As the climate warms – I think there’s no shadow of a doubt it will warm – we will get increasing thaw of the permafrost and increasingly development of these ‘thermokarst’ features.
“There will be more slumps and more gullying, more erosion of the land surface.”
Murton added that the ‘Gateway to Hell’ would work to ‘provide a view to what has happened in the past and what is likely to happen in the future'.