Did you know that the gas crater Darvaza, known as “The Gateway to Hell”, “The Door to Hell” on the Web, is a hole which is 70 meters wide, in the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan. It literally is burning hole.
The fire is fueled by natural gas and burns from about 42 years, since the ground collapsed under the weight of a drilling platform. The Soviet geologists had accidentally chosen it as the site for their drilling works, an area where there was hiding a huge underground cavern filled with natural gas, causing the collapse of the vault.
Geologists, fearing the presence of toxic gases decided to let the gas in the belief that the phenomenon would last a few days. The hole has been burning since then and in the darkest nights you can see the flames burn, from miles away. You can check them in Google Mao here.
By Alba V
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
