Scientists discover a rapidly expanding ‘gate to hell’ in Siberia – Newsbomb – News

A crater 200 acres wide and nearly 300 meters deep in the Yana Highlands in Siberia. Known as “Patagica Crater”expanding faster than expected due to climate change.

The so-called “Gate of Hell”, Patajika Crater It was first formed when thawing “permafrost” within the Siberian tundra began releasing tons of previously frozen methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, into Earth’s atmosphere.

Now, according to the Daily Mail, new research has discovered that the rate of release of methane and other carbon gases as the hole deepens has reached between 4,000 and 5,000 tons per year.

the Glaciologist Alexander Kizyakov, The study’s lead author collaborated with dozens of other researchers on the new study, published this month in the journal Geomorphology. Kiziakov and colleagues They found that the hole had almost reached the bottom, meaning that the remaining permafrost, thus creating further collapse, had almost completely melted.

But Kizyakov, who teaches at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia, noted that there is still potential for the melting to continue horizontally.

“Expansion is expected along the margins and above,” Kiziakov told Atlas Obscura.

This lateral extension is also bordered by the proximity of the parent rock, the summit of which appears to rise to the saddle between the nearest mountains, about 550 metres. [1805 πόδια] “Higher,” he explained.