Turkmenistan’s Gateway To Hell:
Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov recently ordered officials to find a method of finally extinguishing the ‘Gateway to Hell’ in the country.
- Turkmenistan’s Gateway to hell, also known as The Darvaza Crater, is 225 feet wide and 99 feet deep. It has a diameter of 70 metres, across an area of 5.5 square metres.
- It is a natural gas field collapsed into a cavern near Darvaza in Turkmenistan.
- It is the raging flames, burning for five decades in a large natural gas crater.
- It is believed that, in 1971, a simple miscalculation by Soviet scientists led to the creation of this crater.
- The Soviet scientists had underestimated the amount of fuel laying below. Their boring equipment drilled through an underground cavern.
- Because of this, a deep sinkhole was created.
- After the gas driller fell into the pit, scientists were concerned that the crater would release noxious gases.
- Toxic methane gas had already started leaking into the atmosphere.
- Thus, in order to stop the methane from reaching neighbouring areas and causing damage to the environment & living organisms, scientists decided to set the crater ablaze.
