Darvaza gas crater, in Derweze, Turkmenistan

Darvaza gas crater, in Derweze, Turkmenistan

Map of Turkmenistan with the location of the crater identified.

 Shining of Karakum

Turkmenistan's Darvaza Crater—created more than 40 years ago

when the ground under a Soviet drilling rig gave way—has been burning for decades.

 

세상에서 가장 아름답고, 장엄한 자연경관 7선 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y25BC0E3Cds

 

4. Darvaza gas crater in DerwezeTurkmenistan  5:15~ 6: 45

 

Darvaza  Burning gas crater in Derweze, Turkmenistan

 

 

Darvaza gas crater, in Derweze, Turkmenistan. 

Door to Hell or Gates of Hell

officially, the Shining of Karakum

The Door to Hell, a burning natural gas field in Derweze, Turkmenistan.

 

 

Derweze-Surroundings

The Darvaza gas crater and the surroundings. Tents are visible, which facilitate nocturnal trips to the site.

 

The Darvaza gas crater (Turkmen: Garagum ýalkymy), also known as the Door to Hell or Gates of Hell, officially,

the Shining of Karakum,is a burning natural gas field collapsed into a cavern near Darvaza, Turkmenistan.

 Hundreds of natural gas fires illuminate the floor and rim of the crater. The crater has been burning since the 1980s. How the crater formed is unknown, but engineers ignited the crater to prevent poisonous gases from spreading.

 

The gas crater is near the village of Darvaza in the middle of the Karakum Desert. Located about 260 kilometres (160 mi) north of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, it has a diameter of 60–70 metres (200–230 ft) and a depth of about 30 metres (98 ft).  Another nearby gas crater is fenced off and has a distinct odor.

 

The "Door to Hell" (also known as the Gate to Hell, the Crater of Fire, Darvaza Crater) is a natural gas field in Derweze, Turkmenistan

 

History

The early years of the crater's history are still being determined. Relevant records are either absent from the archives, classified, or inaccessible. Some local geologists have claimed that the collapse of a crater happened in the 1960s; it was set on fire only in the 1980s to prevent the emission of poisonous gases. Others assert that the site was drilled by Soviet engineers in 1971 as an oil field but collapsed within days, forming the crater, with the engineers choosing to flare the crater to prevent the emission of poisonous gases but underestimating the volume of the gas.

 

Controlling the burn

In April 2010, President Gurbanguly Berdi­muha­medow recommended that measures be taken to limit the crater's influence on the develop­ment of other natural gas fields in the area.  In January 2022, Berdi­muha­medow announced plans to extinguish the crater, citing deleterious effects on local health, the environment, and the natural gas industry.  A commission was established to find the optimum technique. Despite Berdi­muha­medow's intentions, the crater remains open and burning.

 

Turquoise Lake Crater / Turkmenistan, Darvaza

A crater filled with water; gas bubbles are visible.  About 23 km from the Darvaza gas crater.

 

Mud_Crater_ Darvaza -_Turkmenistan,

The mud crater. About 10 km from the Darvaza Gas Crater.

 

 

The Darvaza Crater: The USSR's top-secret desert mystery

12 June 2021

 

Adrian Hartrick & Dominika Ozynska

Features correspondent

 

Dale Johnson/Getty Images

The Darvaza Crater: The USSR's top-secret desert mystery (Credit: Dale Johnson/Getty Images)

 

Known as "The Gates of Hell", a massive molten pit in the Turkmenistan desert has been spewing fire for decades – but its origin is considered top-secret.

 

The Karakum Desert is a massive expanse of sun-scorched sand dunes covering roughly 70% of Turkmenistan. You could wander through this parched 350,000sq km badlands for days and only see the endless crests and valleys of the Karakum's barren wilderness. But if you make your way to the desert's north-central plain, you may stumble upon a truly surreal site: the Darvaza Crater, a molten gas pit that has been spewing fire for decades and is known as "The Gates of Hell".

 

The story goes that in 1971 Soviet geologists were drilling for oil in the desert when they hit a pocket of natural gas. This caused the earth to collapse, forming three large sinkholes. In order to prevent the methane from leaking into the atmosphere, it's rumoured that geologists lit one of them on fire, thinking it would burn out in a matter of weeks.

 

But after Canadian explorer George Kourounis set off on the first expedition to plumb the crater's depths in 2013, he discovered that no-one actually knows how this hellish inferno came to be. According to local Turkmen geologists, the gaping 69m-wide-by-30m-deep crater formed in the 1960s and wasn't lit until the 1980s. Yet, because gas and oil were highly prized commodities in Turkmenistan during Soviet rule, it appears any record of the crater's creation is now classified and top-secret information.

 

What is certain is that this unlikely methane-belching fire pit has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in a country that only sees about 6,000 visitors per year. For much of the past decade, as the sun dips below the Karakum's sea of sand dunes, wide-eyed wanderers from near and far have come to witness this blazing colosseum of fire light up the desert sky.