Melting ice reveals 'doorway to hell'

A giant "door to hell" hole in Siberia has "revealed" due to the rapid melting of the ice layer below, revealing an entrance to a 200,000-year-old ancient world.

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The Batgaika crater, known to Yakutia locals as the "door to hell", is one of the largest sinkholes to collapse in Siberia during a period when the permafrost beneath it melted into mud and methane gas.

However, Batgaika is special in that it has opened up ancient mysteries deep underground. This crack, which is more than 600 meters wide and about 84 meters deep, has revealed stages of climate change in the area along with many fossils of animals and plants that are wonderfully preserved in the ice.

Batgaika fissure.

A study in the scientific journal Quarternary Research said that the stratified layers around the pits contain important data about ancient climate.

Specifically, this land was once covered by tundra (bare areas with a permanently frozen subsoil layer located near the poles). On the other hand, two tree stumps found also show that this land was once a dense forest.

Fossils discovered in the Batgaika pit include the remains of mammoths, musk oxen, and even a 4,400-year-old horse.

Taken together, this “doorway to hell” paints a pretty clear picture of the region’s climate changes over tens of thousands of years. Researchers also hope to be able to predict the climate in the coming decades by observing Batgaika.

Batgaika is known to be expanding by 10 to 30 meters each year as the permafrost around it continues to melt. Researchers say the hole is also gradually increasing in depth.

According to khoahoc.tv