I don't want to get too bogged out on the etymology
But if you're gonna name a place the door to hell
it had better look something like this in this case I think we can all agree the
name fits
The door to hell otherwise known as the Darvaza gas crater isn't exactly a
natural phenomenon nature merely provided the raw materials for what
humans managed to turn into a decades-long environmental freak show
and while it's origin is somewhat shrouded in mystery the science behind
it is not it was nineteen seventy one when a group of Soviet petroleum
geologists set out to explore the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan
mostly they were looking for oil fields but the region is also rich in natural
gas because oil and gas are both the results of the same geologic process the
very slow very intense compression of ancient organic material over time
though there has never been an official report about the events that followed
most believe that during the initial exploration of the area
the geologists were so encouraged by their estimates of how much natural gas
there was that they quickly set up some drilling rigs but unbeknownst to them
they drilled right over a big cavernous pocket of natural gas and it collapsed
soon after the operation began the ground gave way taking with it their
equipment and creating an enormous sinkhole more than 60 meters in diameter
and 20 meters deep
miraculously no one is reported to have been killed but there was another
problem natural gas is composed primarily of methane a colorless
odorless gas that while not toxic can displace oxygen and easily make it hard
to breathe when it's nearby and then there's that thing that we like so much
about methane in the first place
it loves to explode, it can create a combustible mixture in the air at levels
as low as 5 % + even though we had yet to pick up on the fact of global warming
back then it's worth pointing out that methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times
more potent than carbon dioxide. That's why in some oil and gas drilling
operations were natural gas is released if it can't be captured it just burned
off in a process called flaring
yes this still releases tons of co2 but co2 is way less bad than methane
anyway those seventies Soviet scientists were left with a choice
one continue to let the dangerous methane vent into the atmosphere putting the
local population and environment at risk or two light the crater on fire burning
off all the gas and what scientists predicted would take a few weeks they
chose the latter and 42 years later the crater is still burning. Today the door
to hell has become something of a -
tourist attraction creating an eerie glow that can be seen at night from
kilometers away and releasing a terrible
[Eggy?] smell that has nothing to do with natural gas which remember has no smell
but is instead produced by hydrogen sulfide in the ground; Can't wait to go
there myself and if you want to visit you probably have some time the fire
will continue to burn until all the natural gas deposits feeding the flame
have been combusted
and no one knows when that's going to happen Do you have an idea for a weird place
you'd like us to teach the world about or for any other sci show episode let
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