From the blossoming trees along the avenue to the chirping birds outside your window, you have Mother Nature to thank for most of the beauty you see around you. You also have her to thank for many of the most terrifying natural phenomena in the world.
Harsh and unforgiving, this Turkmen desert features a natural aberration that’s been attracting attention for decades. While the bold and daring travel thousands of miles just to get a peek, experts have been desperately trying to remove the dangerous landmark from the map.
The Karakum Desert, located in Turkmenistan, is like most deserts across the world. There’s a sparse population, not much rain, and sand as far as the eye can see. Oh yeah, and a giant crater that holds an eternal flame.
This site is called the Darvaza crater, but locals have a different name for it: “The Gates of Hell” or “The Door to Hell.” Given the apocalyptic scene, whoever nicknamed the crater didn’t have to push their imagination too hard.
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Craziest of all, this massive inferno has been burning for decades with no sign of slowing down. Hundreds of tourists flock to the pits each year, vying to catch a glimpse. Nearly all of them have the same question: how the heck did this happen?
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Well, the story behind the mysterious inferno is almost as incredible as the sight of the flames themselves. Inquiring tourists are taken back to 1971, when the republic was still a part of the Soviet Union. Geologists had a plan.
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A group of Soviet geologists ventured into the desert to locate potentially profitable oil fields. They came across an area that they thought might be rich in oil, and they started drilling immediately. But there was a problem.
Ted Maxwell
It didn’t take long for them to realize there was no oil. They were instead drilling on top of a massive reservoir of natural gas. Even worse, the area couldn’t support the weight of their heavy equipment and began crumbling beneath them.
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Soon, the Earth opened up and swallowed all their equipment, leaving a cavernous hole in the middle of the desert. In the chaos, other pits opened up nearby and completely changed the terrain of the desert forever — and this wasn’t even the most shocking consequence.
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While no one was injured in the event, there was, however, a problem. The huge craters were leaking natural gas at an unbelievable rate. Methane was billowing into the area around the craters and robbing the desert of oxygen.
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In the weeks after the collapse, animals in the area dropped dead because of the lack of oxygen. Because the desert was not home to a dense animal population, losing even a few was making a huge impact. Meanwhile, gas kept streaming into the sky.
Desperate, the group of scientists came up with an alarmingly simple — and very extreme — idea to combat the leak. Suffocating any fears of an explosion, they decided to set the crater on fire in hopes that it would burn itself out.
But skeptics of the plan pointed out that adding fire to a gas leak would have catastrophic consequences. The experts retorted that when it comes to oil or natural gas drilling operations across the world, “flaring” isn’t unheard of.
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Flaring consists of burning excess natural gas that cannot be processed immediately so it can be eliminated safely. In North Dakota, over a million dollars of natural gas is burned each day. So, why wouldn’t this work for our Soviet scientists?
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The government assumed the fire would last a few weeks, but they had no idea exactly how much natural gas they were dealing with. When they lit the flame 50 years ago, nobody suspected it would still be burning — or the consequences that would follow.
In 2010, the president of Turkmenistan visited the site and expressed concerns about the massive flames. Nearby gas fields couldn’t be developed if the Gates of Hell kept burning. He ordered the local authorities to develop a plan to extinguish the crater for good.
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Nothing came of that order. Ten years passed, and the flames were burning brighter than ever. The fires burned so bright, in fact, that they began attracting more than just tourists.
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Animals, too, are attracted to the crater, which can be seen from miles away. Most spectacular once the sun goes down, the site is full of details that blows the average traveler’s mind.
The massive craters have no protective guard rail on the outside and the area is not patrolled or regulated in any way. The site is only for the brave and very sure-footed, as one wrong move could send you plummeting into the merciless flame.
Unusual Traveller
Sure, the Darvaza crater doesn’t make it onto most traveler’s bucket lists. Yet few people realize how close one of the world’s most beloved national parks is from becoming a “Gate to Hell” itself.
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