Door Gas Crater (Turkmenistan)

- God's Art-Gallery -Ritesh Christie

Turkmenistan, a small country in Central Asia, may not be so important on the world map today, but it was once an important milestone in the so-called Silk Route connecting China and India to Europe. In the Middle Ages, a town called Marv was an important Muslim city on the caravan route that carried silk and spices to Europe. Russia occupied the region in the nineteenth century. Turkmenistan, which played a leading role in Central Asia during the 19th Bolshevik Revolution, became a province of the Soviet Union called Turkmenistan. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 191, the region eventually became a separate country called Turkmenistan.

The few countries in Asia with the largest population are those with very small populations and Turkmenistan. The number of people visiting Turkmenistan, with a population of 3 lakh, is also negligible. The Balkan province of Turkmenistan has vast reserves of oil and natural gas, but about 70 percent of the country is occupied by the Karakum Desert. In such a completely unfamiliar region, nature has created such a wonder after a human error that one should be amazed. Near the city of Darwaza in the Karakum Desert, everything seems normal during the day, but at night it looks as if a fire is burning inside the ground. Going closer, you can see flames blazing in a huge pit. This space is known as the door gas crater. The locals even call it the Gate of Hell.

The door crater is nothing but a sinkhole formed in the ground. The last few years have seen an increasing number of strange phenomena in many places in the world. In many places, large sized holes called sinkholes suddenly fall to the ground. If such eyebrows fall in populated areas, there will be loss of life and property. Although the creation of sinkholes is nothing new, such sinkholes have been formed for hundreds of millions of years in the history of the earth.

The ground usually collapses forming a cavity beneath the earth's surface and a sinkhole is formed. Such sinkholes fall suddenly and without any prior warning as the cavities formed under the ground gradually enlarge and then suddenly collapse. Sinkhole accidents are most likely to occur in areas with limestone, gypsum or carbonate rocks.

In such places rain water is absorbed into the soil and the rocks below the surface are eroded. The process of building a sinkhole is extremely slow and takes tens of millions of years. Sinkholes can also be formed due to events such as groundwater or earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

However there is disagreement about how the door gas crater was formed. According to some, the sinkhole was mistakenly designed by Russian geologists. While digging for oil and gas, the ground suddenly collapsed and methane gas was released. The pit was set on fire so that the methane gas would not mix with the atmosphere and spread pollution. In doing so, the Russians may have thought that the fire would be extinguished as soon as the amount of methane gas decreased, but the fire that started in 181 is still burning in this pit.

In fact there was an abundance of methane gas in the underground cavity at this place and because of this the fire is still burning. However, according to local geologists, the gate crater, which is about 20 feet in circumference and 5 feet deep, was formed not as a result of human error but naturally. The word sinkhole gives rise to a sense of dread, but in many parts of the world there are sinkholes that have a reputation for being spectacular. Door gas craters are also very popular among travelers.