Door to Hell: The Burning Crater of Darvaza

This reminds me of the Centralia, PA coal fire that has been burning underneath the city since the mid 60s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia%2C_Pennsylvania
You think they could come up with some sort of steam turbine to capture what is essentially geothermal heat and put it to use instead of letting it all burn off.

So this is the cause of global warming!

Wow. This is like something straight out of Doctor Who!

Always and always again I'm impressed by nature! Great foto!

"Way to set the whole crater on fire, Pete. Hey Mike, you're not going to BELIEVE what the new guy did."

"Drainage, my dear boy, DRAINAGE!!!"

so why dont they cover up the hole with a huge metal lid which they could helicopter over the top, and then starve it of oxygen and then harvest the gas?
Im sure it really wouldnt be that difficult, there have been trickier feats performed with the wonders of modern engineering.

Nice idea Hugh. Might happen now. But the reason it hasn't happened up till 2006 might be due to where the crater is, Turkmenistan.

Old Saparmurat wasn't the most cleverest of leaders. Why bother investing in your country's geothermal energy sources when you have $3 billion in your personal bank account and you're a totalitarian dictator? The motivation just goes...

Since there is gas down there, why didn't they try to tap it further away?

I THINK I see it on satellite images on Google Maps. Looks to be about 6 miles north of Darvaza, about 2 miles to the right of the division line. Appears as an orange dot.

It's like the flaming b*tthole of Earth. I almost wrote that in the post, but thought better of it :)

The earth has hemroids.

Well it looks like they found gas ALMOST where they expected it to be. They only problem is they hit another gas pocket where they didn't expect. One big OOPS. Don't you just love it when Mother Nature decides to stike back.

Now all someone needs to do is draw two huge hands on both sides of the hole! It would be a goats.ex from space!

This was on a recent book or movie but I can't remember which or what. Does anyone know?

My best guess is the wonderful travel-documentary Long Way Round with Ewan MacGregor and his buddy Charley Boorman, but I am far from certain.

Anyone?

That would be the most awesome bonfire ever...or a big old oven.

Doesnt look like gas to me, looks more like burning oil-shale or similar.

what a waste!!!...especially when oil and gas prices are ever increasing....more so for people like me...located on isles in the South Pacific.....you guy's wouldn't believe the gas rates we hae here...

Well, after having given this one a whole "hell" of a lot of thought, the conclusion is obvious. This is the beginning of the biggest vodka still on earth.

I was just out here last weekend and the Darvaza Crater awesome. We camped out nearly a half mile from the crater and could see the glow all night as well as hear the hiss of the burning gas. The government of Turkmenistan has no interest in harvesting or using this gas as they have one of the largest natural gas reservoirs in the world and all Turkmen are provided with free natural gas and water until 2020. Their cooking fires are burning around the clock because matches are more expensive than the gas.

Gasoline costs about 23 cents a liter!

I wonder if your readers are aware that the predatory natural gas industry is poised to invade upstate NY with horizontal fracture-drilling. The same geniuses that thought this fire would go in a few days are trying to convince landowners that unconventional gas drilling is "safe."
They use bribes, lies, bull***t commercials that call natural gas "green" or "clean" to prey on poor landowners all over the world.

Check out http://www.un-naturalgas.org/ to get past the disinformation.

Tut tut... Shame on all of us.. The World/Life is sooooo simple.. Share. Give unto others as we would have ourseleves. I hope that one day Someone will stand up and speak sense. Money, Religion and power will bring us all down. Until that day, big big hugs and kisses to everyone.. xxx

Interested to read Otego's comment as Queensland, Australia is at this time being bombarded with the "clean", "green", "rural partnership" natural gas propaganda, which most farmers seem to prefer to the Australian government allowing the coal companies to take & destroy the land with little or no compensation.

@ Adam Stanhope - they show The Burning Crater of Darvaza in "Exploring the Deserts of the Earth, Episode 2" (Free on netflix right now).