Strange things in world Episode 3 - Door to Hell

Have you ever seen "Door to Hell" ? Well I am sure you have never seen it

I will show you real door to hell today, just look at bellow image.

Photo: nationalgeographic.com

Do you see it, it does looks like door to hell. Well actually it is not, it is "Darvaza gas crater" which is natural gas field in Derweze, Turkmenistan.

In 1971 Soviet engineers identified this site as oil field site. So they setup drilling rig and operations to find quantity of oil available in this site. After preliminary survey they found that there is natural Gas present bellow the drilling rig & soon camp collapsed into a wide crater.

Photo: wikipedia

As Engineers expected release of dangerous gases which could affect life of people in nearby town, they set fire on that cracker. It was expected that gas would burn within 3 weeks but it is still burning after 4 decades.

This cracker is 225 feet (69 meters) wide and 99 feet (30 meters) deep. In 2013 the president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow declared this part of the Karakum Desert with the crater a nature reserve.
In 2013 nationalgeographic with the help of explorer and storm chaser George Kourounis measured the size of cracker & collected the soil of cracker to check if life can survive in this kind of situation any where in universe.
You can read more about this on : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/07/140716-door-to-hell-darvaza-crater-george-kourounis-expedition/

Some more photos of "Door To Hell"

Photo: dailymail.co.uk

Photo: dailymail.co.uk

Photo: dailymail.co.uk

Photo: dailymail.co.uk

Here is video of "Door to Hell"

You can also read previous episodes
Strange things in world Episode 2 - World Wife Carrying Championships
Strange things in world Episode 1 - Red crabs mass migration

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