Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Facts About Door To Hell - strangefacts

  • East of the Caspian Sea in the middle of Karakum desert somewhere in Central Asia hide a secret It is something so surreal and extraordinary in the same time you thing is not real at all
  • Here near a small town of Darvaza, Turkmenistan is located “The door to hell” how locals name the strange place
  • In fact it is a 50 – 100 meter crater who burn continues for 35 years without any pause
  • The Door to Hell, as local residents at the nearby town of Darvaza have dubbed it, is a 70 meter wide crater in Turkmenistan that has been burning continuously for 35 years
  • In 1971, geologists drilling for gas deposits uncovered a huge underground cavern, which caused the ground over it to collapse, taking down all their equipment and their camp with it
  • During a drilling they found an underground cavern filled with natural gas
  • In this moment the ground collapsed, leaving a large gaping hole exposed
  • To avoid poisonous gases coming out of the hole, it was decide to fire up and let the gas burn
  • Since the cavern was filled poisonous gas, they dared not go down to retrieve their equipment, and to prevent the gas escaping they ignited it, hoping it would burn itself out in a couple of days
  • From its burning mouth pours the stench of sulphur, fouling the local air and making anything with nasal cavities flee from the vicinity 
  • In addition it glows day and night, the leaping flames nested are so ferocious that they produce a hazy glow which can be seen from several miles away 
  • In April 2010 the president of Turkmenistan ordered the fire to be quelled and the hole to be sealed so as to stop it removing gas from nearby gas drilling sites
  • While it is an amazing site that many would like to keep around we cannot expect it to last forever, the gas being burnt is much worse than Carbon Dioxide in its contributions to global warming
  • Unfortunately, there was a slight miscalculation as to the amount of gas that was trapped, and the crater continues to burn to this day
  • Nobody can say how many tons of excellent gas has been burned for all those time but it just seems to be infinite or it is not so ordinary place
  • Derweze is a Turkmenistan village located in the middle of the Karakum Desert
  • You can see "Door To Hell" on Google Earth at 40°15′8″N 58°26′23″E
  • Do you think they are somehow related to the same outfit who first came out about global warming, or the ones who decided Pluto was not a planet, or maybe the brainiacs who have changed everyone’s Zodiac sign?
  • Makes you wonder… No one knows how long the gas will burn, but it seems to be unlimitless
  • It is a waste of natural resources, but hey, they created quite a phenomenon. The locals call it the “Door To Hell”