The Darvaza Gas Crater, often nicknamed the “Door to Hell,” is a sprawling, fiery pit located in the heart of Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert. This geological anomaly has captured global attention because it has been burning continuously for decades. The crater’s permanent conflagration is the result of a Soviet-era drilling mishap, turning a remote desert location into a spectacle of perpetual fire. The site, situated about 260 kilometers north of the capital Ashgabat, stands as a stark testament to a miscalculated human intervention with a massive natural gas reserve.
The 1971 Drilling Accident
The fire traces its origins back to 1971, when a Soviet geological survey team was drilling in the Karakum Desert. While exploring for oil, they located a substantial underground natural gas pocket. As drilling progressed, the ground beneath the rig collapsed, creating a large, circular depression approximately 70 meters in diameter and 20 to 30 meters deep.
This collapse released large volumes of methane gas into the atmosphere. To prevent the spread of this poisonous gas, Soviet engineers decided to ignite the crater. They calculated the fire would burn off the toxic gas within a few weeks. However, the gas proved far more abundant than estimated, leading to the sustained burning that has lasted for over 50 years.
The Mechanisms Sustaining the Fire
The expectation that the fire would burn out quickly stemmed from underestimating the region’s vast subterranean natural gas field. The Darvaza crater sits atop one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves, extending across the Karakum Desert. The drilling site collapse created a direct and continuous conduit from this pressurized reservoir to the surface.
The primary fuel sustaining the flames is methane, a highly flammable greenhouse gas. As the gas is continuously forced upward through fissures created by the collapse, it mixes with oxygen and ignites. This constant, pressurized supply prevents the fire from running out of fuel, turning the crater into a permanent burning vent. The area’s geology allows the gas to seep out from multiple points, creating hundreds of individual flames along the crater’s floor and walls.
Decades of Intervention Efforts
The continuous burning of the crater has prompted various attempts to bring the fire under control. In 2010, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow publicly recommended limiting the crater’s influence on nearby natural gas fields. Past efforts included proposals to fill the crater with earth or introduce specialized chemicals, but none were implemented successfully.
In 2013, Canadian explorer George Kourounis led an expedition to descend into the crater to collect soil samples. This scientific exploration aimed to determine if extremophile organisms could survive within the harsh, high-temperature environment. Despite these investigations and political mandates, the crater continued to burn, demonstrating the sheer challenge of capping such a large, naturally-fed gas leak.
Official Mandates and the Present Day
The Darvaza Gas Crater remains a blazing sight and a significant tourist attraction, but it also represents a substantial environmental and economic liability for the nation. In January 2022, President Berdimuhamedow issued a formal directive to government officials to find a definitive solution to extinguish the fire. The mandate cited the negative impact on the health of people living in the vicinity and the loss of valuable natural gas resources that could be exported.
A commission was subsequently formed to study the optimal technique for stopping the conflagration. The most viable strategy proposed by the state-run Turkmengaz company involves drilling new wells around the existing crater to extract the gas and reduce the pressure feeding the flames. Recent reports indicate that the implementation of this project, which aims to divert the flow of methane, has successfully reduced the visible size of the fire.