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Welcome to the “gates of hell”.
This is how the Darvaza crater, located in the north of the former soviet republic of Turkmenistan.
“When I got to see it for the first time and walk to the rim, and the hot desert wind from the crater hit me in the face, I felt it was the kind of place to where Satan himself could go out, with trident and all, “Canadian explorer George Kourounis told the BBC.
Measuring 69 meters wide and 30 meters deep, the natural gas that has been burning for decades emanates from its interior.
During an expedition in 2013 on the website of the National Geographic channel, Kourounis tried to discover the origin of this “eternal fire”.
But he came out of his investigations with more doubts than answers.
Mysterious origin
The most common story goes that in 1971, several Soviet geologists drilled the Karakum Desert with the aim of finding oil.
They met there a bag of natural gas that caused the earth to collapse, forming three large sinks.
To prevent methane from being released into the atmosphere, a theory suggests that geologists they set fire to one of the sinks, thinking it would be extinguished in a matter of weeks.
But Kourounis says there is no document to support this version.
The Darvaza crater is 69 m wide and 30 m deep.
He made a first expedition to the region in 2013 and after a local investigation, he discovered that no one really knows how he was born.
“One of the most striking and frustrating things about this crater is that there really isn’t much information about it. (You can’t get it) even while touring the country,” explains the explorer.
“I did my best to find an official report or recording, a document mentioning the incident… But nothing“.
According to Turkmen geologists, the huge crater actually formed in the 1960s and started to burn in the 1980s.
“There is even controversy as to whether it was turned on accidentally, such as by a thunderbolt, or whether it was intentional,” says Kourounis.
Another theory asserts that they could have applied the flaring technique, common in natural gas extraction, in which surpluses are intentionally burned for economy and security.
If so, since energy was a strategic issue for the Soviets, reports or files in this regard would have been classified as top secret, experts say.
The secret”
Historian Jeronim Perovic says the mystery of the “gates of hell” makes sense.
“It’s a reflection of the way things worked in Soviet times (…). At that time, only successes were reported, not failures. So if the locals did something wrong, no one did not want this to be known, “he told the BBC.
The site is located in a plain of the Karakum desert.
When the crater emerged in a remote desert, the impact was minimal.
And since the Soviet Union had no gas supply problems, since it produced around 700,000 million cubic meters per year, it is likely that burning it would have been the most practical alternative, considers the expert.
“Burning 15,000 or 16,000 cubic meters per year, or four times what Switzerland consumes per year, for them it was nothing. So instead of thinking about what could be rationally used or putting it in a pipe, which requires building infrastructure, they might just decided to burn it down, ”he says.
In contrast, Stefan Green, a microbiologist who took part in the Kourounis expedition, explains that “the uncontrolled release of methane is a very bad idea”, so it makes sense to burn it down.
“It’s incredibly dangerous, because if it burns constantly, it doesn’t accumulate in a particular area. Otherwise, you will have a huge explosion every now and then“, he maintains.
While it is harmful to generate carbon dioxide by burning gas, it is much more harmful to release methane into the atmosphere. This is a very common practice in oil producing countries like Iraq, Iran or the United States.
Legend,
The flames increase or decrease, but the fire has been going on for decades.
Either way, the fuel lasted for years. “Unfortunately, this is a problem that has not been resolved until today,” said Perovic.
An attraction seen by few
Turkmenistan considered putting out the blaze at some point. But the authorities decided it was a good way to promote tourism.
The fire pit that spits methane has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in a country that only receives about 6,000 visitors a year.
Getting to Darvaza Crater involves a long journey through an environment that offers little to see.
Its nocturnal glow fascinates adventurers who venture into inhospitable areas like the Karakum Desert, which is not easily accessible.
Along these lines, George Kourounis describes how amazing it was for him.
“Standing in the background in a protective suit, in which you look like an astronaut, surrounded by what I call a fiery colosseum, is one of the experiences closest to visiting a another world here on Earth that anyone can have. ”
* Based on the report by Adrian Hartrick and Dominika Ozynska for BBC Travel.
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