Door to Hell
By tony leather, 29th Jul 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsEnvironment
At the heart of the Karakum Desert, this giant fire-hole, dubbed by locals the door to hell, of fire, is in truth a crater created by an over-eager team of geologists over four decades ago.
Door to Hell
Anybody seeing this for the first time could be forgiven for believing it to be a dramatic set from some movie, but in actual fact this amazing site is to be found in Turkmenistan, 260 kilometres north of the capital of Ashgabat. It had, in all honesty, nothing to do with film makers at all, but a scientific team who made an error of judgement.
At the heart of the Karakum Desert, this giant fire-hole, dubbed by locals the door to hell, of fire, is in truth a crater created by an over-eager team of geologists over four decades ago, the resulting flames having been burning since that dramatic day.
It was back in 1971when Soviet geologists, drilling at the site, accidentally tapped into a natural gas-filled cavern far below, causing, it seems, the ground beneath the drilling rig to collapse, resulting in a yawning chasm70 m across, from which gas was spewing out.
Afraid that poisonous gases might get released, the team took the decision to burn it off, hoping that the flames would quickly consume all the gas in the cavern, but they got it so very badly wrong that gas is still burning off to this day, the flames generating a golden glow visible in the nearby, 350 strong village of Derweze.
The hole was ordered to be filled in back in April 2010 by president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, but it remains untouched, lighting up the heart of the Karakum Desert, east of the Caspian Sea, which covers much of Turkmenistan, and has significant oil and natural gas deposits, that the country has yet to exploit.
HellB
At the heart of the Karakum Desert, this giant fire-hole, dubbed by locals the door to hell, of fire, is in truth a crater created by an over-eager team of geologists over four decades ago, the resulting flames having been burning since that dramatic day.
HellC
It was back in 1971when Soviet geologists, drilling at the site, accidentally tapped into a natural gas-filled cavern far below, causing, it seems, the ground beneath the drilling rig to collapse, resulting in a yawning chasm70 m across, from which gas was spewing out.
HellD
Afraid that poisonous gases might get released, the team took the decision to burn it off, hoping that the flames would quickly consume all the gas in the cavern, but they got it so very badly wrong that gas is still burning off to this day, the flames generating a golden glow visible in the nearby, 350 strong village of Derweze.
HellE
The hole was ordered to be filled in back in April 2010 by president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, but it remains untouched, lighting up the heart of the Karakum Desert, east of the Caspian Sea, which covers much of Turkmenistan, and has significant oil and natural gas deposits, that the country has yet to exploit.
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