Derweze (also known as Darvaza) is a village in Turkmenistan with about 350 inhabitants, located in the middle of the Karakum Desert, about 260 km north of Ashgabat.
The inhabitants of Darvaza are mainly Turkmen from the Teke tribe and maintain a semi-nomadic lifestyle. In 2004, the village was dissolved on the orders of the President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, because “it was an unpleasant sight for tourists.”
More than forty years ago, a gaping, fiery crater opened in the desert of northern Turkmenistan, probably as a result of a drilling accident.
In 1971, Soviet geologists began drilling in the Karakum Desert, not far from the village of Darvaza, where they had punctured a natural gas-filled cave. During drilling an accident happened, equipment and transportation fell into a large hole.
The largest of these craters is about 70 meters wide and 20 meters deep. No one was injured, but gas came out of the hole. Fearing that the hole would lead to the release of toxic gases, the team decided to burn it down.
It was hoped that the fire would consume all its fuel within a few days, but weeks, months and years passed and it is still burning. In 2004, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov issued an order to move the village of Darvaza to another location for security reasons.
No one knows how long it will burn, if gas supplies will run out, or if the hole will eventually be closed, as gas is a valuable resource and will not burn quietly for decades. Nevertheless, this natural gas fireplace remains one of Turkmenistan’s most mysterious sights, attracting countless tourists every year.
Natural gas consists mainly of methane, which, while not toxic, does displace oxygen, making it difficult to breathe. This wasn’t so much a problem for the scientists, but for the animals that call the Karakum Desert home – shortly after the collapse, animals that roamed the area began dying.
The escaping methane also posed dangers because of its flammability: only five percent methane needs to be in the air for an explosion to occur. So the scientists decided to set the crater on fire, hoping that all the dangerous natural gas would burn up within a few weeks.
It’s not as bizarre as it sounds: this happens all the time in oil and natural gas drilling with natural gas that cannot be captured.
Unlike oil, which can be stored in tanks indefinitely after drilling, natural gas must be processed immediately. If there is excess natural gas that cannot be routed to a processing facility, drillers often burn the natural gas to get rid of it. . It’s a process called “flaring,” and in North Dakota alone it wastes nearly a million dollars worth of natural gas every day.
One visitor has gone a step further than just standing on the edge. Canadian explorer George Kourounis entered the hellhole wearing a heat-reflective suit. Kourounis described it as a “colosseum of fire” and found bacteria living in a microsystem at the base of the crater. And it’s a truly alien landscape down there.
This crazy exploration was supported by National Geographic, hoping that evidence of life under these conditions would mean that life could be found on other planets with similar environments.
This man-made crater of molten lava and brutal heat is unique in the world. No one knows exactly when all the methane gas will be burned up and the Door to Hell will be closed forever.
