• The Batagaika crater, the world’s largest one kilometre-long permafrost crater, is expanding at a baffling rate due to the thawing of the permafrost.
  • This has been exacerbated by global warming.
• The crater is located in the Sakha Republic in Russia and reaches depths of up to 100 metres.
• In the 1960s, after deforestation led to the melting of the underground permafrost, it caused the land to sink.
• Over the years, the crater has only expanded and is locally called ‘the cave-in’ or ‘mega-slump’ by scientists.
• This is releasing greenhouse gasses like methane stored in the thawed soil which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
• The thawing permafrost causes very tangible, immediate infrastructural damage as well such as buckling roadways, splitting houses, and disrupting pipelines.
• When a wildfire breaks out, the thawing fastens.
• Russia is warming about 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world. As a consequence, the long-frozen tundra that covers 65 per cent of the country’s landmass is melting.

ABOUT PERMAFROST

• Permafrost is any ground that remains completely frozen — 32°F (0°C) or colder — for at least two years straight.
• It is most common in regions with high mountains and in Earth’s higher latitudes — near the North and South Poles.