[3][4][5][6] According to Mary Edwards of the University of Southampton, the process of erosion that increases the crater's size occurs in the following way:[4] Below the cliff face, steep hills and gullies drop to Batagaika's floor.

As more of the material at the bottom of the slope melts and comes loose, a larger face is exposed to the air, which in turn increases the speed of permafrost thawing.

Once you've exposed something like this, it's very hard to stop it.According to a conference paper published in 2016[7] the crater did not show any signs of stabilization after several decades (since 1980s) of slump growth, with the headwall retreating with observed rates of generally >10 m and up to 30 m per year closer to 2016.

[8][9] Drone footage[6][10] revealed in 2023 more details of the crater, and Nikita Tananayev, lead researcher at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk interviewed by Reuters for the occasion,[11] warned that the expansion of the Batagaika crater is a sign of danger; with increasing temperatures and anthropogenic pressure more and more similar mega-slumps are likely to be formed in the future.

The soil beneath the slump, which is about 100 metres deep (328 feet) in some areas, contains organic carbon stores that will be released into the atmosphere as the permafrost thaws, further fuelling the planet's warming.