The Batagay megaslump, a vast geological depression in Russia’s Far East, is consuming roughly 35 million cubic feet of earth every year — a direct consequence of accelerating permafrost thaw.
Researchers arrived at that figure by analyzing satellite data and field measurements across the Yakutia region.
Located in the highlands of the Yana River basin, the formation currently spans 3,250 feet and shows no sign of stabilizing. A study published in the journal Geomorphology found that the crater’s headwall is receding at a steady rate of nearly 40 feet per year. The cause is simple: rising temperatures melt the ice that binds the soil together.
As the wall recedes, it exposes layers of soil that have been frozen for 650,000 years — a fact that lends the site extraordinary scientific value, since it holds the second-oldest permafrost on Earth.
The expansion has been especially dramatic over the past decade, during which the depression widened by more than 650 feet.
The growth isn’t only horizontal, either. The collapsed section of the slope — situated roughly 180 feet below the main rim — continues to sink as underground ice melts and the surrounding sediment turns to slurry.
The Physical Limit: Why It Grows Outward, Not Downward
Despite the sheer volume of material being lost, researchers found that the crater’s downward growth is nearing its natural limit.
To understand the process, imagine a spoon scraping ice cream from a bowl. The ice cream represents the permafrost, and the bowl is the bedrock below. Because most of the deep ice has already melted, the spoon has nearly scraped the bottom of the bowl.
With only a few feet of frozen soil left above bedrock, the thaw can no longer advance downward. As a result, growth is now concentrated entirely at the edges, causing the Batagay megaslump to spread outward like a puddle.
In short, the crater is growing ever wider because the bedrock below has stopped it from going any deeper.
A Biological Archive and a Local Myth
Beyond its geological impact, the “gateway to the underworld” serves as a natural archive of the region’s biological history.
Paleontologists working inside the depression have unearthed the remains of mammoths, bison, and elk, some dating back more than 4,400 years. One of the most remarkable finds came in 2018: a perfectly preserved foal mummy from an extinct species of wild horse (Equus caballus lenensis), estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000 years old.
This trove of ancient remains, set against the landscape’s constant transformation, has fueled a deep sense of mysticism among local residents. For some, the crater is an entrance to the world of the dead — a belief reinforced by the unsettling sounds that rise from within.
Scientists have since determined that these sounds — often described as eerie — are caused by the massive landslides triggered as the walls collapse.
An Indicator of Arctic Fragility
The scale of sediment loss at Batagay is exceptional even by Arctic standards — and the Arctic is a region already seeing rapid thaw episodes with growing frequency.
This irreversible transformation is a stark reminder of how vulnerable frozen soils are to rising global temperatures.
Beneath the spectacle of its ongoing collapse, the site offers scientists a rare window into ancient ecosystems preserved in ice for millennia.
Yet the pace at which the crater is eroding raises serious questions about permafrost stability across northern Russia — and about the greenhouse gases locked within these ancient layers, which could be released as the thaw continues.
