There is a huge fire pit that has been burning for nearly 50 years. It is difficult to extinguish it.

Nature always brings us incredible surprises.

In the north of Darvaza Village, Ahal Province, Turkmenistan, there is the heart of the endless Karakum Desert. It was originally a sparsely populated place, but since 49 years ago, a blazing fire pit appeared here. Since then, there have been tourists here. People from all over the world have come here from afar just to take a look at this fire pit that has been burning all year round. All those who have seen it in person have been amazed by it, so people gave this fire pit a very appropriate name, which is "The Gate of Hell".

Of course, although it is called the "Gate of Hell", it is not a door to the human world opened by the devil from hell, nor is it entirely formed by nature. Human factors also play a vital role in it. To know the origin of this big fire pit, we have to go back to 1971.

In 1971, Soviet geological surveyors came to the heart of the Karakum Desert to conduct oil and natural gas exploration.

The exploration personnel built a drilling well here, and the location of the drilling well is now the location of the "Gate of Hell". During the exploration process, the underground drilling rig of the drilling well collapsed, and a large pit was formed at this location. However, this is not just a simple large pit. Because the underground drilling rig had drilled to a very deep place before it collapsed, natural gas can already emerge from the ground.

Since natural gas is leaking from the pit, it cannot be ignored. If the pit is abandoned, the gas leaking from underground may have an adverse effect on people's health. Because the composition of the underground gas cannot be fully determined, the explorers decided to ignite the gas in the pit.

Natural gas is an efficient fuel. After the explorers ignited the natural gas in the pit, the pit became a perpetual fire pit.

If this fire pit was just a small pit, it would not be worthy of the reputation of "Gate of Hell". The reason why it can win this honor is that the scale of this big pit is very spectacular. Its diameter reaches more than 70 meters and its depth reaches 30 meters. From a nearby perspective, it is definitely more realistic and spectacular than any "Gate of Hell" shown in any film or television works.

This big pit is full of blazing flames, and once they started, they have never stopped. Counting from 1971, it has been 49 years so far. In these nearly 50 years, not only has it not been extinguished, the fire has not shown any signs of weakening. No one knows how long it will burn, because we have no idea how much fuel is left for this big fire pit.

Isn't it a waste to let so much natural gas burn like this? Why not extinguish it?

This is indeed a problem. In fact, not only do we think so, but the president of Turkmenistan also thinks so. After inspecting the "Gate of Hell", the president of Turkmenistan once said that he wanted to put out the burning pit, but it was just talk, and it was left unfinished. Because it is not an easy task to put out this big fire pit. Why do I say that? Because just extinguishing the flames cannot solve all problems.

Do you remember why the pit was set on fire? It was to prevent harmful gases leaking from the pit from harming people's health. In fact, it is not difficult to simply extinguish the flame, but what happens after the flame is extinguished? Harmful gases will leak out, so to extinguish the flame in the pit, you must start from the source, find the source of the natural gas leakage, and block the source.

It is extremely difficult to find the source of natural gas leakage hundreds or thousands of meters underground. Not only does it face many technical difficulties, but the cost is also extremely huge. This is why the "Gate of Hell" has been burning for nearly 50 years without anyone paying attention to it.

So can the "Gate of Hell" only be extinguished when the underground natural gas is exhausted? No. In other parts of the world, similar situations have also occurred. For example, the oil and gas wells in Urtapur have encountered similar problems. At that time, in order to extinguish the fire in this oil and gas well, the Soviet Union simply used a nuclear bomb equivalent to 30,000 tons of TNT. With the successful detonation of the nuclear bomb underground, the source of the oil and gas leakage was also blocked. In this way, there is no need to find the source of the leakage, and the leakage can be completely blocked. However, this method is easier said than done, and the actual operation still faces many risks.