BBC Science Focus - 10.2019

EYE OPENER

EYE OPENER

Hell

hole

KARAKUM DESERT,

TURKMENISTAN

The Darvaza gas crater, aka

‘The Gates of Hell’, has a

mysterious past. It is

thought to have formed in

the 1960s, when engineers

drilled the site for natural

gas. The sudden upward

movement of gases caused

a dramatic cratering – the

Darvaza crater is 69m wide

and 30m deep – and

released gas into the air.

“About 10 year s aer the

cratering happened, it was

still venting gas,” says Mark

Ireland, a lecturer in energy

geoscience at Newcastle

University. “So local

geologists purposefully lit

it to burn o the gases.”

The crater was expected

to burn for a maer of

days, but is still alight now,

some four decades on. And

it’s hard to predict when

the crater will burn out.

“We’re missing a lot of

scientific data about it,”

says Ireland. “But it’s

reported that there is life in

the crater: certain

microbes like certain

conditions. Maybe we

could learn something

about the extremes where

life can survive.”

SHUTTERSTOCK

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EYE OPENER

EYE OPENER

Hell

hole

KARAKUM DESERT,
TURKMENISTAN

The Darvaza gas crater, aka
‘The Gates of Hell’, has a
mysterious past. It is
thought to have formed in
the 1960s, when engineers
drilled the site for natural
gas. The sudden upward
movement of gases caused
a dramatic cratering – the
Darvaza crater is 69m wide
and 30m deep – and
released gas into the air.
“About 10 year s aer the
cratering happened, it was
still venting gas,” says Mark
Ireland, a lecturer in energy
geoscience at Newcastle
University. “So local
geologists purposefully lit
it to burn o the gases.”
The crater was expected
to burn for a maer of
days, but is still alight now,
some four decades on. And
it’s hard to predict when
the crater will burn out.
“We’re missing a lot of
scientific data about it,”
says Ireland. “But it’s
reported that there is life in
the crater: certain
microbes like certain
conditions. Maybe we
could learn something
about the extremes where
life can survive.”

SHUTTERSTOCK

VISIT US FOR MORE AMAZING IMAGES:

S CIENCEF OCUS

BB C S CIENCEF OCUS