For more than 50 years, the Gates to Hell, a fiery pit in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan, has been burning with the help of an underground source of methane. This Soviet-era drilling for oil left behind an accidental inferno designed to address problems of the environment temporarily.
It only transformed into a blazing spectacle. However, as development to put it off continues, the nature and structure of the crater remain enigmatic and, therefore, challenging to eliminate. What maintains this flame, and can man extinguish it forever?
The accidental inferno: How the Gates to Hell came to be
From a Soviet drilling expedition earlier in 1971, the world got one of the most persistent mysteries on the environmental front. During drilling a natural gas reservoir, the ground beneath the rig gives way, creating a hole measuring 70 meters in diameter and 30 meters deep. The methane leakage started rapidly increasing, a great danger to the neighboring villages.
To avoid the risk, Soviet scientists set fire to the crater’s edges, thinking the methane would be consumed by fire after some weeks. Their assumptions, nevertheless, turned out to be wrong in their worst estimates. It should have gone extinct, but the crater has continued to burn fiercely for over five decades due to the large reserves of methane that seep through the earth’s surface.
There has not been much success in putting out the fire or containing it over the years. The memory of the original drilling rig, which, in the form of its blackened metal skeleton, was covered by the crater, symbolizes the destructive effect of human intervention.
A blazing paradox: Tourism and environmental impact
The Gates to Hell is a paradox, simultaneously an environmental and an erotic work. This symbol of the dangers of extracting fossil fuels continues to burn brightly, but the site draws many tourists. Receiving about 10,000 visitors annually, it provides a terrific, extraterrestrial experience that still enchants roamers and photophiles.
Apart from being a tourist attraction, the crater is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Leaking of methane, which is twenty-five times more effective in causing climate change than carbon dioxide, occurs daily. However, some of the emissions fail to burn; thus, it remains to be seen how the crater’s formation will affect global warming.
With the Gates to Hell being both a geological curiosity and an ecological problem, Turkmenistan is somewhat tricky. Should it continue to earn big money from tourism or fund attempts to shut down this blazing show?
Can humanity extinguish the Gates to Hell?
Attempts to shut down the Gates to Hell have recently increased; the president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has pledged to put out the flame. But this is simpler said than done. Scientists must first examine the methane reservoir and decide how to cap the crater without causing more environmental or earth problems.
And yet, it is hardly help that methane is so prevalent in the Amu-Darya Basin. The basin is one of the most productive natural gas basins globally; therefore, the crater must source gas from a vast reserve. To extinguish the fire, one must also stop future leakage, which is a technical and expensive process.
There is no solution for now, and the burning crater remains an emblem of man’s conflict between industry growth and the planet’s protection. Are the Gates to Hell possible to shut, or are they to remain a constant symbol of man’s struggle with nature?
The Gates to Hell is not just a fire pit, but it represents the human ability to innovate and to screw up. Though its fire attracts thousands of visitors each year, one cannot deny that burning methane is not friendly to the environment at all.
The world faces a complex challenge: looking for the solution to shut down this accidental inferno after half a century. Otherwise, the Gates to Hell will still burn, and all that people will be left with is awe and unease.