Case file · Anomaly hotspot
Batagaika crater, the 'gateway to the underworld'
A huge and growing thermokarst slump in Yakutia that local Yakut people regard with fear and call a mouth to the underworld; it drew world attention in 2016.
2016 CE · 67.58, 134.77 · status: explained
The account
The depression began after forest was cleared in the 1960s and the permafrost started to thaw. Its walls expose hundreds of thousands of years of frozen sediment, with ancient wood and animal remains.
The sceptical view
Purely a permafrost-thaw feature; the underworld name reflects local unease, not any anomaly.