This topic was posted , thanks combat_boots.
Posted on 02/25/2017 7:40:58 PM PST by combat_boots
A doorway to 200,000 years ago.
It's no secret that Siberia's permafrost has been on thin ice lately. Conditions are varying so much that huge holes are appearing out of nowhere, and, in some places, tundra is quite literally bubbling underneath people's feet.
But new research has revealed that one of the biggest craters in the region, known by the local Yakutian people as the 'doorway to the underworld', is growing so rapidly that it's uncovering long-buried forests, carcasses, and up to 200,000 years of historical climate records.
Known as the Batagaika crater, it's what's officially called a 'megaslump' or 'thermokarst'.
Many of these megaslumps have been appearing across Siberia in recent years, but researchers think Batagaika could be something of an anomaly in the region, located around 660 km (410 miles) north-east of the region's capital city of Yakutsk.
Not only is the crater already the largest of its kind, almost 1 km (0.6 miles) long and 86 metres (282 feet) deep, but it's getting bigger all the time.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
That's a good question....I didn't think so.
“Conditions are varying so much that huge holes are appearing out of nowhere”
“new research has revealed that one of the biggest craters in the region, known by the local Yakutian people as the ‘doorway to the underworld’”
EXCEPT, this one was caused by MAN, by clear cutting the trees.
“The ravine opened up after a huge chunk of forest was cleared, which caused the land to sink but has been exacerbated by warmer temperatures melting the permafrost.
As more and more permafrost melts, the ravine continues to expand, which has been worsened further by flooding adding to its expansion.”
NOT appearing out of “nowhere”.
Mastodon’s were only in the Americas. You must mean Wooly Mammoth. Very different. Mastodon’s lived in forests and munched tree leaves. Mammoths lived on treeless prairie and tundra and ate lots of grass.
One can see the difference in their teeth. Mammoth molars were flat for grinding silicate-rich grasses, while Mastodon molars had prominent peaks for breaking twigs and branches. In fact, Mastodon got its name from this. It literally means “Breast Tooth”.
Speaking of mastodons...
On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness
“The tusks that clashed in mighty brawls
Of mastodons, are billiard balls.
The sword of Charlemagne the Just
Is ferric oxide, known as rust.
The grizzly bear, whose potent hug
Was feared by all, is now a rug.
Great Caesar’s bust is on the shelf,
And I don’t feel so well myself.”
—Arthur Guiterman
You are correct. My brain fa#t
Wooly Mammoth
It looks like boreal forest to me.
10,000 years ago it was definitely permafrost though. Therefore, global warming is real.
Supposedly sled dogs in Siberia in the early twentieth century would eat the exposed meat of mammoths if it emerged from the snow and ice...
the questions that come to mind looking at that pic...
Isnt it obvious that there is/has been create caverns under the permafrost for something like this to happen??
If it is indeed a melt, where is the water going?
Hasn’t anyone did a seismic(if that’s the correct term) tests on the ground to see how many underground caves there are?
Although very unlikely IMHO(& knowledge) that a clearing of trees caused this, going back to basics, frozen water expands and unfrozen earth settles over time. Like a slab of concrete over footings. in time the center of the slab cracks and falls because the ground underneath settles...
IOWs I bet a good portion of the permafrost is suspended in this way... it has to be for something like this to happen...
Really?! Wow.!
The show we watched had them finding several huge tusks a femur(I think) that looked as fresh as if it had come from a butcher shop.
Gates and the others in the party rappelled down the black cliff face as the walls were collapsing around them. Crazy.
Yes, I read that in a “How and Why Wonder Book” when I was a kid (a great series, BTW).
This topic was posted , thanks combat_boots.
This is a 2017 topic.
I added it to the GGG, but forgot to include the ping list, so...
Images:
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=Batagaika+crater
I started playing Risk as a kid. Yakutsk was a country, although I really didn’t know where the name came from. I just needed it to achieve total world domination.
Difficult to tell the size of those trees. I was up in Alaska for the first time doing some field work. I made the comment about some “new” trees because they were so small. Maybe 15 feet tall and 5 inches around.
My client said “New!? Those are probably 70 years old! Trees like that don’t grow very fast up here.” (Hmm - it was also in a boggy area, so yeah - I think you are right). Alaska obviously has huge trees on good soil.
Dire wolves, please!
In the TV series Northern Exposure, they were always having barbecues when one thawed out of a snow bank.
Soil is not necessarily the growth problem.
Sunlight is a major factor. While it is the land of the midnight sun it is also the land of midday darkness. While that is not strictly true, there are also long periods of very short days. The summer very long days do not have the strong sunlight.
And then it is cold. Cold inhibits growth.
The cold and lack of sun are what I first thought of and what I understood the guy to be referring too. But then why the huge trees in some spots in the interior? Anyway - it was something that obviously made instant sense to me, but had never even considered it!
The isolated Mammoths on Wrangell Island survived until 4000 years ago.
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