The world's biggest permafrost crater is growing

Bangkok Post Group

A gash that is nearly two-thirds of a mile long in Russia's Far East forms the world's largest permafrost crater, and as the planet warms, it gets bigger and bigger. - REUTERS

Transcript

00:00 This is the world's biggest permafrost crater, a gash in the earth of Russia's

00:06 Far East stretching two-thirds of a mile. And as the planet warms up, the Batagaika

00:11 crater's permafrost is melting. Locals call it the cave-in or the gateway to

00:17 the underworld. But it has a scientific name too - a mega slump. Scientists warn

00:23 the phenomenon is a sign of danger for what's to come. The crater began to

00:28 appear in the 1960s as a result of deforestation in the area. The

00:33 deforestation led to the loss of ground ice which then caused the earth to begin

00:38 eroding. Since then, locals have taken note of its rapid growth.

00:44 Two years ago the edge was about 20 to 30 meters away from this path and

00:49 now apparently it is much closer. Usually on that side it expands about 10 meters

00:56 and on this side about four to six meters each year. It varies depending on

01:01 the year. Scientists aren't sure exactly how fast the crater will expand but they

01:07 say Russia is warming at least 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world.

01:12 Melting the long frozen tundra that covers about 65% of the country's land

01:17 and releasing greenhouse gases stored in the soil. Researcher Nikita Tananayev

01:23 says that will further fuel global warming. It is a sign of danger because

01:28 this is produced by higher air temperatures, by warming climate, by

01:34 anthropogenic impact. So we would say that yeah, toward the future with

01:41 increasing temperatures, with high anthropogenic pressure, we will see more

01:45 and more of those mega slumps forming up until all the permafrost will be gone.

01:50 Well which is an extreme case but I have to pronounce it nonetheless.

01:55 Thawing permafrost has already threatened cities and towns across

01:59 northern and northeastern Russia, buckling roadways, splitting apart houses

02:04 and disrupting pipelines.

02:08 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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