‘Mouth to Hell’ Continues to Swallow Up Land Close to a Remote Russian Village

Called the “Batagaika Crater” by researchers, the enormous sinkhole appeared over sixty years ago due to thawing permafrost and deforestation in the region.

In the following decades, the small crack continued to grow and formed into an enormous gash in the landscape, dubbed the Mouth to Hell by locals who live in the surrounding regions. 

Current estimates suggest the Batagaika Crater is around 1 km (about 0.62 miles) long and 86 m (about 282 feet) deep. However, it continues to expand by at least 10 m (about 32.8 feet) each year.

According to experts, the layers of soil could date back as far as 650,000 years. If this was to be confirmed, it would make the Mouth to Hell the oldest sunken area in all of Eurasia.

This allowed sunlight to pass through the once-forested landscape and penetrate the ground, melting the ice in the soil. Ultimately, this led to the creation of the sinkhole, and as the frozen ground continues to thaw, the Mouth to Hell widens.

What’s becoming increasingly apparent to researchers is that the hole shows no sign of stopping anytime soon, which is a major problem for the region.

As the colossal chasm continues to grow, it threatens to destroy the entire landscape and the homes of locals who have lived in the region for centuries. Some of the locals are worried that the expansion of the hole may hasten in the future, placing them in significant danger.

Batagay currently has around 4,500 people living in the village, many of whom are farmers. Should the Mouth to Hell expansion intensity be high, the entire village could be threatened.

As permafrost melts due to warmer temperatures, the surrounding land becomes less stable. This is, unfortunately, one reason behind the Mouth to Hell’s rapid expansion. 

Changing weather patterns and melting ice severely affect various regions, resulting in expansive sinkholes. Scientists have now weaned that craters like that close to Batagay may become more frequent in the coming years/ 

A crater found in the Yana Uplands of northern Yakutia has released a vast amount of carbon that was once locked in the ice. So, as the sinkholes continue to grow, they release the harmful gas into the atmosphere.

According to the researcher, the Mouth to Hell will “probably stabilize eventually,” claiming that it will eventually reach the limits of the topography despite extending at a rapid pace currently.

“Slump growth probably accelerated due to climate warming and wetting,” he said.

The Yakut people, an indigenous group native to the region, have deep beliefs about a spirit world and claim they often hear unsettling booms coming from the crater.

However, Murton, who has spent considerable time working on the site, claims that the bottom of the hole is rock, suggesting there’s no credible evidence of an actual Mouth to Hell.

However, The Batagaika Crater is not the only unsettling hole that has been defined as an entrance to hell or the underworld. The Darvaza Gas crater has gained just as much attention in recent years. 

This unique site is a natural gas field that collapsed into a cavern near Darvaza and has been burning for over five decades. From above, it appears to be one large fire, but in fact, hundreds of small natural gas fires are behind the illuminated floor of the crater.

A geologist at the time decided to remove the rig by setting the entire pit on fire. However, this resulted in numerous gas-fed fires starting, and they continue to burn to this day. 

According to best estimates, the gas pit has been growing slowly each year and currently measures around 230 feet in width and extended downwards by at least 100 feet, making it a significantly large and terrifying fire pit. 

Kourounis admits visiting the fiery pit in the desert was something he hadn’t wanted to accomplish for quite some time before paying it a visit. “Every now and then, I would look at pictures on the internet of the place again, and it just never exited my mind,” he said. “It was there like a splinter in my brain that I couldn’t get rid of.”

However, the explorer finally entered Turkmenistan in 2013 after several years of trying. When he first laid his eyes on the crater, he said it looked like a volcano in the middle of an expansive desert. 

“You can hear the roar of the fire if you stand at the edge. The heat, if you are downwind of it, is unbearable. There are thousands of little flames all around the edges and towards the center. Then there are two large flames in the middle at the bottom, and that is probably where the drilling rig hole was for the natural gas extraction.”

According to their myth, anyone who ventures to the fiery pit loses control of their mind and begins to have excessive thoughts of regret and anxiety as they inch closer to the edge of the crater.

This idea of the land swallowing up vast portions of their villages and landscape may likely have resulted in the several myths of a fiery hell or underworld at each site, leading many locals to steer well clear of the craters.