July 14, 2016

The Crater of Fire

Crater of Fire

The Crater of Fire (also known as Darvaza Crater) is a natural gas field in Derweze, Turkmenistan, that collapsed into an underground cavern in 1971, becoming a natural gas crater. Geologists set it on fire to prevent the spread of methane gas, and it has been burning continuously since then. The diameter of the crater is 69 metres (226 ft), and its depth is 30 metres (98 ft).

The crater is a popular tourist attraction. In the past five years 50,000 tourists have visited the site. The gas crater has a total area of 5,350 m2, the size of an American football field. The surrounding area is also popular for wild desert camping.

Image Credit: Tormod Sandtorv
Explanation from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_of_Fire

7 comments:

  1. Im not so sure Id be comfortable camping near it due to obvious methane in the area. Starting a campfire may be quite a spectacle.

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  2. Wow! So amazing! Well I'm just curious if it's safe to go near the crater.

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  3. It looks impressive, I'd love to visit.

    Why did nobody harvest the gas (methane) seems silly really, a fire as short term then harvest it, I'm sure there is a way!

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  4. I know about this crater it is the longest burning manmade fire. In the start they just thouhgt okay it will burn out ... but they eventually came to that conclusion that it probably woulden.So they try to put it out. No luck.. Then they thought okay let it burn. but the latest years Gas is becomming expensive,so now they want it out.. There have been several attempts to put the fire out the last years ... as you can see with no luck.. And they sat it on fire in 1971 believing it was just a small pocket off gas, but it wasnt, it is an enourmous amount of gas down there, it will burn forever....

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  5. That is main reason while I rely and relate my belief to NATURE.

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