The Darvaza Gas Crater or The Door to Hell, is located in the Karakum Desert of central Turkmenistan. In 1971, Soviet geologists went to the Karakum in search of oil fields. They found what they thought to be a substantial oil field and began drilling. Unfortunately, they were drilling on top of a cavernous pocket of natural gas which started escaping from the crater. The scientists decided to light the crater on fire, hoping that all the dangerous natural gas would burn away in a few weeks’ time. But what was supposed to be a few-week burn has turned into almost a half-century-long desert bonfire.
Darvaza Gas Crater
