Darvaz, Uzbekistan: The Door to Hellclipped by: alanocu 
13
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This place in Uzbekistan is called by locals “The Door to Hell”. It is situated near the small town of Darvaz.
The story of this place lasts already for 35 years. Once the geologists were drilling for gas.
Then suddenly during the drilling they have found an underground cavern, it was so big that all the drilling site with all the equipment and camps got deep deep under the ground.
None dared to go down there because the cavern was filled with gas.
So they ignited it so that no poisonous gas could come out of the hole, and since then, it’s burning, already for 35 years without any pause.
Nobody knows how many tons of excellent gas has been burned for all those years but it just seems to be infinite there.
Tags: geology, russia
clipper's remarks: I couldn't find much more on this. One blog entry I read from someone who'd been to Darvaz: "Used to be a mining town, then there was an ENORMOUS gas explosion (the crater is more than 30 metres across and almost twice as deep) so the Soviets pulled out. Now there are just people living in houses in the shadow of rusting industrial equipment and Soviet vehicles with no tyres. And the wind blows....." The blog entry: http://www.h4ppy.com/blog/archives/2002_09_01_h4ppy.html
13 Comments - Showing Latest 10
by 
thisnamecantbetaken on 3-26-2008 1:34 AM
The door to hell... hmm. Why does this clip remind me of my ex mother-in-law's house?
by 
merrie on 3-26-2008 5:11 AM
I looks like a volcano, but it's not a crater. Interesting.
by 
sidegik on 3-26-2008 3:18 PM
interesting, i wonder if there is something like that in other parts of the world?
can they use this to generate some alternative energy?
(inquiring mind wants to know : ))
by 
tanyamm on 3-26-2008 4:37 PM
That sounds like a weird place on this one site I went where they said you could hear the screams of tortued souls in agony that's why they called it the door to hell.
by 
amgumen on 3-26-2008 8:13 PM
Our Earth degases at tremendous rate globally. Discovered and undiscovered oil-gas fields are a very small portion of overall hydrocarbon flow going from the interior of the Earth, just remnants of the process. In some places (oil-prone area, rift structures) gas flows are more concentrated than in others. In this case, very exotic though,drilling operation caused very concentrated gas discharge that was dispersed at the territory before. Probably, cavernous limestone rocks aggravated the situation to create this exit from hell when people disturbed it.
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