"Hell's Gate", a name that makes people shudder to hear, is easily reminiscent of the ghost god's legendary Yin Cao Di Mansion, however, there are two extraordinary landscapes in the real world that people call "Hell's Gate".
One is a permafrost sinkhole located 660 kilometers northeast of the city of Yakutsk in the Russian Far East, about 1 kilometer long and 86 meters deep, expanding at a rate of 30 meters a year, which the Yakutsks call the "Gate of Hell", a bird's eye view from a high altitude, like a giant tadpole swimming forward.
The other is the "Dawaza Gas Pit" in the middle of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan, which is about 69 meters in diameter and has a maximum depth of 30 meters, although not as large as the permafrost sinkhole in the Russian Far East, but has been burned continuously for 51 years by raging fires.
Burning for 51 years without extinguishing, it is no wonder that some people compare the Dawaza gas pit to the "gates of hell" and the unquenchable fire as the "fire of hell".
Turkmenistan's "Hell's Gate" has become one of the world's most famous tourist attractions, and tens of thousands of international tourists come here every year, adding a lot of vitality to the local economy, but now the President of Turkmenistan has ordered the extinguishing of the "Hell's Fire", which has been burning for 51 years or closed.
Russia's permafrost sinkholes are naturally formed by the melting of the permafrost, but the "Gates of Hell" in Turkmenistan are caused by human factors, and the cause has to start from 1971.
Time back to 1971, just in time for the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan belonged to one of the soviet union's countries, at that time the "Hell's Gate" had not yet been formed, the Soviet oil exploration team came to the middle of the Karakum Desert to explore, Soviet engineers believed that there was oil and gas fields under the location of the "Hell's Gate".
Before long, the huge oil field drilling rig was mounted on the barren desert, the drilling operation was carried out in an orderly manner, and sure enough, it was not long before a large amount of gas came out of the drilling well underground, which was natural gas, and the flow was not small, worthy of soviet engineers, and indeed there were two brushes.
Now that it was determined that there was a gas field, the next thing was much simpler, simply leaving the gas field extraction work to the oil man, but soviet engineers far underestimated the complexity of the gas field, and as the gas spilled, the location of the rig showed signs of collapse.
After the discovery of the anomaly, the Soviet engineers were desperate to escape, the oil exploration team quickly withdrew from the collapse position, and it was not long before the great collapse really occurred, forming the current "Gate of Hell", fortunately there were no casualties, and the poor rig was buried on the spot.
After the formation of the "Gate of Hell", as if opening the large valve of the gas field below, a large amount of natural gas continues to escape outwards, and if it encounters bad weather, the gas can accumulate in a small space, and in 2021, we have had many gas explosions that are natural gas leaks.
Natural gas contains methane, ethane, propane, butane, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide is a highly toxic gas, but the natural gas components escaping from the "Gates of Hell" are not determined, and it is not excluded that there is a strong toxicity, in case the toxic gas gathers in nearby towns, it will be bad, for safety reasons, Soviet engineers ignited the "hellfire".
Soviet engineers thought the gases would burn out in a few weeks, but the results were surprising, burning for 51 years and burning nearly ten billion dollars, but there is no sign of exhaustion, and if the fire is not extinguished, it will continue to burn.
The "Gates of Hell" has increased tourism by virtue of its fame and added a lot of vitality to the local economy.
On July 16, 2014, 44-year-old explorer George Conronis became the first person to enter the "Gate of Hell", which has a temperature of nearly 1000 ° C, and George Conronis collected samples of rock and soil during a 15-minute stay, and scientists found the presence of bacteria in the samples.
On September 9, 2018, "Hell's Gate" became the overnight stop of the Amal-Hazar 2018 Car Rally, and everyone watched the roaring fire in "Hell's Gate" while drinking wine and eating barbecue, which was really comfortable.
However, "Hell's Gates" burns nearly $200 million a year in gas, which is obviously more than worth the loss. When the President of Turkmenistan visited the Gates of Hell in April 2010, he pointed out that the "fires of hell" should be extinguished, but it is indeed not an easy task to extinguish such a large area of fire.
But in January 2022, the president of Turkmenistan officially ordered the extinguishing of the "hellfire", so the "hell's gates" that had burned for 51 years may be closed.
The neighborhood committee that received the order is now looking for a solution to extinguish the "hellfire", which after being extinguished, intends to develop and use natural gas to add welfare to the local economy.
How do I put out the Fire of Hell? There are three conventional methods, one is to attract a large amount of water to flood the "gates of hell", and the fire will naturally be extinguished, but this is the desert hinterland, and it is indeed unrealistic to flood with water. Second, bury tens of thousands of tons of sand until the fire is extinguished, and the most desert is sand, which is really local materials. Third, the use of a large number of effective and inexpensive fire extinguishing agents.
If Turkmenistan really wants to extinguish the "fire of hell", it must be able to do it, and it seems that the "gates of hell" that have been burning for 51 years are really going to be closed. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration