Tuesday, July 08, 2008

The Door to Hades











Somewhere outside of Darvaza, Turkmenistan (or Uzbekistan depending on the source) lies a place known to the natives as the Door to Hades. (I'm using the more polite terminology, of course.)

The story goes like this . . . One day over thirty-five years ago, geologists were drilling for gas when they hit a large underground cavern. In fact, it was so large that it swallowed the scientists' drilling equipment and camp. Worried that poisonous gases might be released from the hole, the geologists decided to ignite the gas in the cavern and let it burn off.

That was thirty-five years ago, and the cavern is still burning.

24 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

OH MY GOSH THAT IS AMAZING!

7:44 AM  
Blogger Irregular Kiki said...

That is so interesting! Isn't that a bit like the hole that Ananka discovers in the beginning of "Kiki Strike: Inside The Shadow City"? I love that part of the book how she goes inside the hole with a rope and finds 'Glimpses of Gotham"

7:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have a question about the t-shirts in the Shadow City Store:
How much is the shipping and handling?

8:06 AM  
Blogger Kirsten Miller said...

Hazel: To go to Germany? I believe it's $5.

8:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is so cool! Where do you FIND this stuff? It is so weird and awesome!

11:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is insane. It kinda reminds me of a story my dad told me once about the oil fields in Wyoming. Now there's a funny story...
Traveling Gnome-She's just incredibly, amazingly gifted that way.

12:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is the coolest thing ever! Maybe one day when the gasses are gone and it stoped burning then people can explore it! And I learned of a cave where you skydive into it!

12:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hello, I'm ginnyweasley007 with a new name :)
the door of hades is so... freaky. don't you think that burning the gas is a little stupid... I mean it's still burning, so if it was poisonous, don't you think some of it has escaped? I think in the next book deedee should talk about the door to hades, it seems to e in her line of work!

2:08 PM  
Blogger Queen Of Useless Information said...

I want to go there!!!!!

2:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank God that this is in Eastern Europe. Otherwise my mother would be PARANOID about stuff like this. It's probably good that she's never seen this website.

2:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pretty colors...

5:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Kirsten did you get my emails? D:

7:23 PM  
Blogger liltomboyblue11;) said...

that's incredible! wouldn't the cavern explode? i wonder if the new movie (journey to the center of the earth) was inspired by stuff like this? also, in a song, (i think it was "Viva la Vida", but i can't really remember) it said "the center of the earth is the end of the world." idk, it's still cool.

8:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How many years!!!!!!!!!

Is the "door" still growing?

8:48 PM  
Blogger Random Irregular said...

Whoa. This world is inredibe and it's totally Wicked!.
So, what type of gas is it that's burning? And have they tried to extinguish it? I mean, for 35 years, that's a lot of CO2 being produced, witht Global Warmng and all.

10:29 PM  
Blogger Kirsten Miller said...

Traveling Gnome: I LOVE your profile pic. Hilarious!

Honest Dream: Good thinking!

Michele: I did! I couldn't get the one pic big enough to see the UFO, but the caterpillar was sure nasty.

9:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Seems like a waste of natural resources to me.

11:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i ate a pie.
the pie ate me.
or at least it tried!

flurpie was a penguin
the penguin was a chipmunk
and that's why we all eat pie!

Hey!

slurpie ate a banana
it was a pineapple
so i got a haircut!

blogger was a weirdo
posting was ediiiible
so i drew a picture!

Hey!

the picture was of booboo
booboo liked the cat
the cat liked to talk and say '"what was all that!"'

i ate a blah for dinner
i ate a pie for lunch
sunblock was for lunch!

Hey!

7:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

whooo I wonder if you could take like a parishot like thing and tonnel the excaping gases to like a wendmill thing that made energy from it power things and then you can take the gasses and bottle them and use them on grils or torches . . . who knows it could be a hole company thing.

foo foo really "what was that"??????

10:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In Shamokin, there's a coal mine fire that's been burning ever since my Grandma was a kid. So my dad goes over and leans down to peer in the smoke-emitting cracks in the ground, even though there's signs warning you to stay away in case of a cave-in. We're like, COME BACK! YOU'RE GONNA DIE!! And he's like, I'll be fine, stop freaking out. He was OK, though.

5:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And COOL! Low shipping charges!

5:21 AM  
Blogger falcon said...

Cooollll!!!


um Slurpi.... flurpi?

6:04 PM  
Blogger liltomboyblue11;) said...

I take it back, the song was 'Jesus of Suburbia' by Green day.

9:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

funny... i always expected the door to "hades" to be in italy, the place near mount vesuvius that inspired Dante to write his "divine comedy"... or rather "the inferno" Trust me, i'm an expert on "hades" after reading dante'sbook several times over...

6:19 PM  

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