Originally posted May 31, 2010

Looking for a new vacation spot? Try Darvaza…

May 31, 2010

With the recent tragedy of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, many of us have been thinking a lot about our natural resources and the way in which we acquire. Natural gas (methane) represents an attractive, yet flawed, alternative. Many of the additional costs involved in fully utilizing methane as a fuel relate to the difficulties in transportation. Compressing the gas into liquid form for shipping is quite energy intensive and researchers have spent many years trying to find efficient processes to catalytically convert the gas into a more useful form at the site of extraction. But for now, and for many years running, we trek into extremely remote locales, drill for gas and trudge home with it.

In 1971, geologists were drilling for gas in the Kara-Kum desert, located in Turkmenistan (then part of the Soviet Union). They accidentally discovered an underground cavern near the village or Darvaza, leading to the collapse of a drilling rig.

Consequentially, a giant crater approximately 100 meters in diameter, was exposed and the concentration of these poisonous gases was so great, that no one in their right mind would go down into it (talk about your “Dutch oven”!).

Now, when companies drill for oil and gas, there is often excess methane that cannot be transported and it is burned off through controlled flares. Wasteful? Yes. Dangerous? No. Okay, so back in 1971 someone had the bright idea to burn the gas out of the crater in Darvaza and lit the whole thing on fire, thinking that it would consume the gas and extinguish after a reasonable amount of time. Um… that was 39 years ago and it’s still burning strong!

No one knows the exact amount of gas that has been burned over the last four decades, nor how much is left to burn. There are incredible economical losses from this waste as well as serious environmental concerns, but there’s no way to put it out. So for now, I guess we can all just marvel at the size and monstrous beauty of what the locals have appropriately named, The Door to Hell.

Check out the video on YouTube

Or read more about it on wiki

Thanks to Zach for the Tip du Jour !