Siberian huge crater

Siberian huge crater

1. Place

   • Near Yana river bassin
     • Hole : Batagaika crater
   • Formation
     • Started in 1960ss
     • Deforestation
       • Ground warmed
         • Less shading
         • Less vapid transpiration
     • Permafrost warmed
       • Thaw
         • Melting escalated

2. Batagaika crater

   • Megaslump
   • Largest of its kind
     • Measurements
       • 0.6 miles long
       • 282 ft deep
     • Growing quickly and continuously
       • From 33ft per year
       • To 98 ft in warmer year
   • "Doorway to the underworld"
   • Great scientific interest
     • 200 000 years of climatic history
   • Layers
     • Past climates
       • Continuous record
         • In Siberia : little understood
           • Needs more analysis
           • Compare to ice-cores
     • Growth
       • Climate change
       • Can reach a neighbouring eroding valley
     • Lot of carbon
       • Same amount as in atmosphere

3. Consequences

   • Carbon exposed to microbes
     • Producing methane and carbon dioxide
     • Greenhouse gases
       • Positive feedback loop

4. Permafrost

   • 2 types
     • Ice buried underground
       • From the last Ice Age
         • Many thousands of years ago
     • Around the crater
       • Ice formed in the ground itself
         • Layer of sediments
         • Frozen since 2 years
   • Changing fast
   • Uncertain future

5. Earth history

   • Alternated repeatedly
     • During the last 200 000 years
     • Interglacial periods
       • Relatively warm
     • Glacial periods
       • Ice sheets expanded

Images and files in the map