What is really the Door of Hell, the amazing well that has been burning for half a century

Although on the planet there are several places where the earth burns spontaneously (even whole ghost towns) without there being volcanoes in between, this official title belongs to a single place. This is how the spectacular Darvaza flames are born in the desert of Turkmenistan

The history of this spectacular enclave begins in 1971, when a group of Russian geologists set out to explore the desert region of Karakum in Turkmenistan. In fact, they were looking for oil deposits, but the region is also rich in natural gas, mainly because oil and gas are the result of the same geological process based on the slow (and very intense) compression of old organic matter.

Although there has never been an official report on the events that followed, the story goes that during the initial exploration of the area, the geologists were so much encouraged by their estimates of the amount of natural gas to be quickly established. take into account the consequences.

In this way, they drilled to conduct prospecting just above a cavernous area, a natural cave that included a natural gas rift that finally gave way. As a result, the collapse of the ground took all the equipment with the drilling rig, creating a huge well of more than 60 meters in diameter and 30 meters deep.

There were no deaths, but they created a new problem, since natural gas is composed mainly of methane, an odorless gas that, although not toxic, can move oxygen and make it easier to breathe when someone is nearby

What did Russian geologists do? They set the crater on fire thinking that it would not take too much time to consume and turn it off. Obviously, his calculations have not been quite lucky, because it has been going on for almost 50 years.

Today, what has been called the Gate of Hell is a tourist attraction that shows itself at night in all its splendor. . By the way, a few years ago, a Canadian explorer became the first to go down (with a thermal suit). The man checked through the soil samples that there were organisms living at more than 400 degrees.

That's when we let everyone's imagination fly, but it gives for a movie that begins in the near future … [ SciShow]