The "Gates of Hell" fire has been burning for 51 years, and the fire extinguishing plan has finally been put on the agenda.
On January 8, the president of Turkmenistan said that he would set up a professional team to extinguish the "Gates of Hell" fire.
This is not the first time that the fire has been proposed.
In 2010, the president said that he would put out the fire, but it did not happen, and in order to ensure safety, he also protected the "gates of hell" in 2013, hoping that the people would not come closer.
But contrary to wishes, the fire at the gates of hell was never extinguished.
Appearing in 1971 and still burning until 2022, it not only earned the title of "Hell's Gate" but also carried the label of "one of the world's most popular attractions".
How did the fire at the Gates of Hell form?
Hell's Gate is located in the remote desert of Turkmenistan, one of the driest countries in the world and the fifth most popular country in the world for natural gas reserves.
Turkmenistan became independent in 1991 and was previously part of the Soviet Union.
In 1971, Soviet geologists in the middle of the Karakum Desert, near the village of Dawaza in the area of exploration for oil, in order to determine the reserves of underground oil, geologists set up a drilling platform on the ground, in the process of operation, due to the heavy equipment, the ground collapsed, forming a large pit 70 meters wide and 30 meters deep.
A large amount of natural gas spilled, and in order to ensure the safety of the surrounding villagers, geologists ignited the overflowing "toxic gas".
I thought about burning it for a few weeks, and it was extinguished, but I didn't expect it to burn for 51 years.
Why did the fire at the Gates of Hell burn for so many years?
Every year, the state of Turkmenistan loses at least 50 billion yuan because of the fires at the Gates of Hell.
As an exporter of natural gas, wouldn't it be better to use it for direct export? Why are fires being put out only now?
The reasons for this are complex:
First, there's too much natural gas;
As mentioned earlier, Turkmenistan's national natural gas reserves are the fifth in the world, and the natural gas reserves that have been detected are 2.28 billion, accounting for 1/4 of the world total, and the oil reserves are 12 billion tons.
Even if the fire burns for 51 years, the annual export volume of natural gas is still 45-50 billion cubic meters, which shows how abundant its natural resources are.
In addition, the constant burning has brought very substantial tourism revenue.
Secondly, how to pounce is a big problem!
Since the president announced to extinguish the fire, netizens' brains have opened:
A said: "Get a big pot lid, cover the hole, there is no oxygen, it will be extinguished soon!" ”
B said: "Just pour it out with water." ”
C said: "Directly fill the sand." ”
D said: "It is really not possible, with a nuclear bomb, in 1963 there was an accident in a well in the Natural Gas Field of Urtabulak, and the fire that burned for 3 years was extinguished by a special nuclear bomb, which took only 23 seconds." ”
The above is still somewhat reliable, and some netizens even proposed to put a cauldron on the gate of hell, which can be used to soak in hot springs or use for shabu-shabu.
However, The Gates of Hell is a special place that has proven to be difficult to solve.
The whole country is very dry, where so much water to extinguish the fire, get a cauldron lid and cauldron, it is not practical, the most important thing is that the gates of hell have been burning for decades, the surrounding ground is not safe, even if there is a cauldron lid and cauldron, it is difficult to buckle up.
With sand, how much sand is needed for such a large pit, the project is huge.
With a nuclear bomb, there is still a bit of reliability, after all, there are real cases, but in fact, there is no nuclear bomb in the local area, but also to consider an unsuccessful situation, tourism income is gone, not to say, but also to spend more money to buy equipment, and the negative impact of nuclear pollution, is it really cost-effective?
Most importantly, even if it is extinguished now, if the gas underground is still there, a natural disaster (lightning), or someone deliberately igniting it in order to see the fire of hell, will still burn again.
In general, the safe extraction of natural gas is the best solution.
It is very simple to find another outlet to draw natural gas and block the gates of hell at the same time, but it is still difficult to implement, it takes a lot of manpower and money to find the best solution, and now only the professional team of Turkmenistan can be expected.
There is also a possibility: if solving this problem costs more money than the current fire wastes, then this shout may also be the same as before, just talking.
Chongqing "Dihuo Village"
Speaking of the unquenchable ground fire, there is also such a place in our country, located in Dongmen Village, Changshou District, Chongqing.
There is a strange phenomenon: on a 4-meter square land, seven or eight fire pits are burning. No matter what time of day, this place will be on fire. Locals also bring water bottles here every day to queue up to boil water, and they also bring food to cook.
According to local elders, these fires began to burn 60 years ago, before there was no gas stove, need to cut firewood, at that time, the villagers will use this unquenchable fire to cook rice and boil water.
Because the ground fire has always existed, it has also attracted many tourists to bring food.
Similar to the situation at The Gates of Hell, Dongmen Village was once the site of oil exploration, and a well was drilled at that time, probably because it felt that the resources here were not rich enough, and it was abandoned, but by chance, the natural gas at the wellhead was ignited, so there was an unquenchable ground fire.
Locals also say they tried to put out the fire, but it will be re-ignited, and now the fire is much smaller than before and may soon be extinguished automatically.