10 Geological Oddities That'll Blow Your Mind (and Maybe Your Geography Teacher's Too!)

3. The Door to Hell: Turkmenistan's Fiery Geological Wonder

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Officially known as the Darvaza gas crater, this burning pit of fire has been blazing continuously for over five decades, creating an otherworldly landscape that attracts adventurers and researchers from all around the world. Right in the middle of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan lies a spectacle so mesmerising and terrible. The narrative of how this hellish hole developed is evidence of the unanticipated results of human activity in natural geology. The Darvaza crater began to form in 1971, during Soviet Union rule of the area. Searching for oil and gas sources, Soviet geologists were doing thorough studies across Turkmenistan. Their search in the Karakum Desert turned them upon what looked to be a sizable natural gas pocket. Ready to make use of this resource, they erected a drilling rig and started working. They quickly found, though, a major issue that would result in the construction of one of the most unusual monuments in the world. The ground under the rig collapsed unexpectedly as the drilling went on, swallowing the whole construction and producing a large crater roughly 70 metres (230 feet) deep and 20 metres (65 feet). Although the fall did not claim any lives, the event gave the geologists a fresh and maybe perilous scenario. Now the crater was spewing significant methane gas into the atmosphere, endangering the local ecology as well as human health. Under this situation, the scientists chose to set the crater on fire, a decision with far-reaching effects. Burning the harmful methane gas would help to prevent its spread and burn off its sources. After which the gas would run out and the risk would pass, they calculated the fire would last a few weeks at most. Still, their computations turned out to be somewhat off. Against all expectations, the fire did not go out on its own several weeks. Days became weeks; weeks became months; months became years. Now burning nonstop for more than 50 years, the Darvaza gas crater shows no indication of stopping. The great natural gas deposits under the Karakum Desert, which still feed the flames throughout a network of subterranean chambers and passages, drive the continuous combustion. The crater has become a bizarre scene from the ongoing fire. The fire's luminous glow can be seen for kilometres around at night, lending the desert an unsettling, apocalyptic mood. The heat coming from the crater is strong; temperatures at the edge could exceed 400°C (752°F). Many tourists describe their experience as both terrible and amazing when they see flames licking the crater's walls together with the great heat and continuous low roar of burning gas.