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If Turkmenistan’s president has his manner, the “Gates of hell” might quickly be shut.
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov mentioned in televised remarks Saturday that he needs to extinguish the well-known flaming pure fuel crater that has burned within the Central Asian nation for many years, Agence France-Presse reported.
The president raised environmental and financial issues and requested his authorities to seek out methods to place the hearth out.
The crater “negatively impacts each the surroundings and the well being of the folks residing close by,” Berdymukhamedov mentioned, in response to AFP. “We’re dropping invaluable pure assets for which we might get important income and use them for enhancing the well-being of our folks.”
Formally known as the Darvaza fuel crater, the blazing pit in the course of the Karakum desert has lengthy been a draw for the few vacationers permitted to go to Turkmenistan. About 200 toes broad by some measures and at the very least 70 toes deep, it cuts a dramatic picture in opposition to the huge expanse of empty land surrounding it.
The crater’s formation has usually been attributed to a Soviet drilling accident in 1971. Geologists supposedly lit one of many massive sinkholes created by the accident on hearth to attempt to burn off the methane there. However Turkmen geologists mentioned the crater might have been shaped within the Sixties and lit twenty years later, BBC Journey reported, and its origin stays a thriller.
Berdymukhamedov additionally ordered specialists to endeavor to extinguish the flames in 2010, to no avail.
Canadian-born scientific explorer George Kourounis turned the primary individual to the touch the underside of the crater in 2013, sporting a heat-resistant swimsuit. Reaching the underside “felt like being on one other planet,” Kourounis informed Insider in 2020.
“The partitions are lit up. The whole lot is glowing orange from the hearth. There’s toxic fuel in all places,” he mentioned.
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