The Darvaza gas crater ( tk, Garagum ýalkymy), also known as the Door to Hell or Gates of Hell, is a burning

natural gas field A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...

collapsed into a

cavern A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

near Darvaza,

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the s ...

. How the crater formed and ignited remains unknown.

Geography

The gas crater is near the village of Darvaza, also known as . It is in the middle of the

Karakum Desert The Karakum Desert, also spelled Kara-Kum and Gara-Gum ( tk, Garagum, ; rus, Караку́мы, Karakumy, kərɐˈkumɨ), is a desert in Central Asia. Its name in Turkic languages means "black sand": "" means sand; "" is a contraction of : " ...

, about north of

Ashgabat Ashgabat or Asgabat ( tk, Aşgabat, ; fa, عشق‌آباد, translit='Ešqābād, formerly named Poltoratsk ( rus, Полтора́цк, p=pəltɐˈratsk) between 1919 and 1927), is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies ...

, the capital of Turkmenistan. There are other

sinkholes A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

nearby. The crater has a diameter of . The hot spots range over an area with a width of and to a depth of about .

History

The early years of the crater's history are uncertain. Relevant records are either absent from the archives or classified or inaccessible. Some local geologists have claimed that the collapse into a crater happened in the 1960s; it was set on fire only in the 1980s to prevent emission of poisonous gases. Others assert that the site was drilled by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

engineers in 1971 as an oil-field but collpased within days, forming the crater; the engineers chose to flare the crater to prevent emission of poisonous gases but understimated the volume of the gas.

Controlling the burn

In April 2010, President 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 in light of its negative effects on the environment and public health; a commission was established to find the optimum technique.

Tourism and Culture

In post-Soviet Turkmenistan, the crater became a minor tourist attraction, perhaps, aided to an extent by the declaration of the region as a natural reserve in 2013. As of 2022, there is no road to access the crater and tourists had to depend on local guides. In 2018, the gas crater was used as an overnight stop in the Amul-Hazar automobile rally. In 2019, Berdimuhamedow appeared on state television doing

doughnut A doughnut or donut () is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and fra ...

stunts around the crater to disprove and correct rumours of his death.

George Kourounis

In 2013,

George Kourounis George Kourounis (born 22 May 1970), is a Greek-Canadian adventurer and storm chaser who specializes in documenting extreme weather and worldwide natural disasters. He presents the television series ''Angry Planet''. Storm chasing Kourounis has b ...

became the first person to set foot at the bottom of the crater; he was gathering soil samples for the Extreme Microbiome Project. The descent was featured in an episode of the

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney General ...

series ''Die Trying;'' National Geographic had sponsored the expedition. Kourounis used a custom-made

Kevlar Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s a ...

harness attached to multiple

Technora Technora is an aramid that is useful for a variety of applications that require high strength or Chemical resistance, chemical resistance. It is a brand name of the company Teijin Aramid. Technora was used on January 25, 2004 to suspend the NASA ...

ropes; he wore a full-body aluminized suit and used a

self-contained breathing apparatus A self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), sometimes referred to as a compressed air breathing apparatus (CABA) or simply breathing apparatus (BA), is a device worn to provide breathable air in an atmosphere that is immediately dangerous to ...

. He has since wished to descend into the crater again, carrrying other equipments for a better profiling of the local biome.

References