Door to Hell: The Burning Crater of Darvaza

1. Matt Blank
   March 25th, 2008 at 2:54 pm

   This reminds me of the Centralia, PA coal fire that has been burning underneath the city since the mid 60s.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia%2C_Pennsylvania
   You think they could come up with some sort of steam turbine to capture what is essentially geothermal heat and put it to use instead of letting it all burn off.

2. CheeseDuck
   March 25th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

   So this is the cause of global warming!

3. oakling
   March 25th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

   Wow. This is like something straight out of Doctor Who!

4. sikantis
   March 25th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

   Always and always again I'm impressed by nature! Great foto!

5. Onym
   March 25th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

   "Way to set the whole crater on fire, Pete. Hey Mike, you're not going to BELIEVE what the new guy did."

6. the man
   March 25th, 2008 at 4:35 pm

   "Drainage, my dear boy, DRAINAGE!!!"

7. Hugh
   March 25th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

   so why dont they cover up the hole with a huge metal lid which they could helicopter over the top, and then starve it of oxygen and then harvest the gas?
   Im sure it really wouldnt be that difficult, there have been trickier feats performed with the wonders of modern engineering.

8. rohin
   March 25th, 2008 at 7:49 pm

   Nice idea Hugh. Might happen now. But the reason it hasn't happened up till 2006 might be due to where the crater is, Turkmenistan.

   Old Saparmurat wasn't the most cleverest of leaders. Why bother investing in your country's geothermal energy sources when you have $3 billion in your personal bank account and you're a totalitarian dictator? The motivation just goes...

9. Christophe
   March 25th, 2008 at 10:36 pm

   Since there is gas down there, why didn't they try to tap it further away?

10. unohav_1
    March 26th, 2008 at 1:35 am

    I THINK I see it on satellite images on Google Maps. Looks to be about 6 miles north of Darvaza, about 2 miles to the right of the division line. Appears as an orange dot.

11. Alex
    March 26th, 2008 at 4:10 am

    It's like the flaming b*tthole of Earth. I almost wrote that in the post, but thought better of it

12. m
    March 26th, 2008 at 7:51 am

    The earth has hemroids.

13. Scotchdrnkr
    March 26th, 2008 at 8:40 am

    Well it looks like they found gas ALMOST where they expected it to be. They only problem is they hit another gas pocket where they didn't expect. One big OOPS. Don't you just love it when Mother Nature decides to stike back.

14. Kevin
    March 26th, 2008 at 10:08 am

    Now all someone needs to do is draw two huge hands on both sides of the hole! It would be a goats.ex from space!

15. Adam Stanhope
    March 26th, 2008 at 1:14 pm

    This was on a recent book or movie but I can't remember which or what. Does anyone know?

    My best guess is the wonderful travel-documentary Long Way Round with Ewan MacGregor and his buddy Charley Boorman, but I am far from certain.

    Anyone?

16. Ali S.
    March 26th, 2008 at 11:10 pm

    That would be the most awesome bonfire ever...or a big old oven.

17. Mark
    March 27th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    Doesnt look like gas to me, looks more like burning oil-shale or similar.

18. Kevin
    November 27th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

    what a waste!!!...especially when oil and gas prices are ever increasing....more so for people like me...located on isles in the South Pacific.....you guy's wouldn't believe the gas rates we hae here...

19. Dragmire
    July 8th, 2009 at 3:59 pm

    Well, after having given this one a whole "hell" of a lot of thought, the conclusion is obvious. This is the beginning of the biggest vodka still on earth.

20. Abandont
    July 21st, 2009 at 7:23 am

    I was just out here last weekend and the Darvaza Crater awesome. We camped out nearly a half mile from the crater and could see the glow all night as well as hear the hiss of the burning gas. The government of Turkmenistan has no interest in harvesting or using this gas as they have one of the largest natural gas reservoirs in the world and all Turkmen are provided with free natural gas and water until 2020. Their cooking fires are burning around the clock because matches are more expensive than the gas.

    Gasoline costs about 23 cents a liter!

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