The World’s Most Beautiful Ecological Disaster
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Central Asia | Destinations | Great Attractions | So Bad It's Good | Turkmenistan | 8 Comments
The locals call it Hell’s Door.
Environmentalists call it an unmitigated ecological disaster zone.
You may call it a destination on your next adventure vacation.
This “it” is nearby the village of Darwaza (also spelled Derweze) in the middle of Turkmenistan’s Kara-Kum Desert. In 1971, when Turkmenistan was a republic of the Soviet Union, the state energy company was drilling near Darwaza when they accidentally bored into an underground cavern filled with natural gas. The drilling, combined with the sudden release of the pressure the natural gas was exerting on the cavern walls, caused the ground beneath the cavern to collapse.
Those working at the drill site were surprised (to say the least) to have suddenly collapsed the ground beneath them. Spot Cool Stuff, having no geologists on staff, is not in a position to judge whether the geologists at Darwaza in 1971 should have known the cavern was there. But what they did after the collapse seems to us to be . . . what’s the phrase? . . . incredibly stupid. The geologists decided to clear the cavern of the natural gas by setting it on fire.
It has been burning since.
The spectacle of this large burning gap in the ground is a rather incredible to witness. Obviously, it is most incredible at night when the red glow of the flames from Hell’s Gate are visible from up to 40 km (25 miles) away. The cater itself is about 75 meters (250 feet) at its widest point. The intense heat of the fire makes it difficult to stand near the carter’s edge for more than two or three minutes at a time. This is probably for the best: The funes coming from the crater are toxic.
Getting there: Darwaza is a bumpy four hour car ride from the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat.
Where to stay: There’s no hotel in Darwaza. A travel specialists can arrange both a stay in a local yurt along with a night time Hell’s Gate visit.
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April 24th, 2009at 5:49 am(#)
Wow I never heard of this, nice read and very interesting thing. I agree what they did was very stupid, perhaps it would have been better to try and capture the gas. Bet nobody thought about how much gas was there before setting it on fire
Dan@currency converter’s last blog post..JPY : 97.82
April 24th, 2009at 7:48 am(#)
Wow, I stand amazed at the discoveries I stamble upon daily. That indeed is the best ecological disaster.
May 4th, 2009at 4:58 pm(#)
LOL @ Soviet era scientists.
July 13th, 2009at 3:26 am(#)
Dont take me wrong, am not a soviet sympathetic, but there has to be a reasonable justification for this phenomena and not just mere stupidity. Am an oil and gas engineer myself and trust me there have never been stupid people in oil and gas business. Soviets have been producing and operating gas wells for decades probably in more quantities than all the world combined so, if I may say, lets give the devil its due. Putting even a gallon of oil on fire is unthinkable in this industry, what to talk about putting gas in a cavern on fire.
July 13th, 2009at 11:34 am(#)
Hi Aadil,
I am not an oil and gas engineer like you are but I’ve been around enough to know that every profession has its less-than-intelligent members.
Further, every day on this planet engineers set gas on fire purposely, through the process of flaring, for example.
Now, is it possible that the engineers had a reasonable justification for doing what they did in Darwaza in 1971? Absolutely! Might it have even seemed like a brilliant idea at the time? Hard for me to imagine personally but, yeah, I suppose it might have. In hindsight, did it turn out to be a powerfully bad idea? You can go to Darwaza and judge for yourself.
August 3rd, 2009at 3:50 am(#)
I did read somewhere that the reason for them lighting the gas was that the gas was poisonous and so to prevent it from escaping and affecting other areas they decided to light it!
October 18th, 2009at 11:18 pm(#)
that is so beautiful – and so crazy! wow – you never know, do you? not sure i’d go there, though…
December 25th, 2009at 1:08 am(#)
My Social Studies showed us a powerpoint about this and I’m bored so I decided to look it up and do it for my Social Studies Project on ‘Things That Might End The World’ and try to get some extra credit.