{"id":391490,"date":"2022-01-08T23:28:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T20:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/turkmenistan-plans-to-close-its-gateway-to-hell\/"},"modified":"2022-01-08T23:28:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-08T20:28:11","slug":"turkmenistan-plans-to-close-its-gateway-to-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/turkmenistan-plans-to-close-its-gateway-to-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"#Turkmenistan plans to close its ‘Gateway to Hell’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Turkmenistan plans to close its ‘Gateway to Hell’<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n After boring into a cavern in 1971, Soviet scientists feared poisonous gases would be emitted and set it alight, thinking it would burn out quickly.
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Turkmenistan’s strongman leader has ordered experts to find a way to finally extinguish a massive five-decade old fire in a giant natural gas crater in the Central Asian country, dubbed the “Gateway to Hell”.<\/p>\n

Citing environmental and economic concerns, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov app<\/a>eared on state television Saturday telling officials to put out the flames at the Darvaza gas crater in the middle of the vast Karakum desert.<\/p>\n

In 2010, Berdymukhamedov also ordered experts to find a way to put out the flames that have been burning ever since a Soviet drilling operation went awry in 1971.<\/p>\n

President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said that the man-made crater “negatively affects both the environment and the health of the people living nearby”. <\/p>\n

“We are losing valuable natural resources for which we could get significant profits and use them for improving the well-being of our people,” he said in televised remarks. <\/p>\n

Berdymukhamedov instructed officials to “find a solution to extinguish the fire”.<\/p>\n

The crater was created in 1971 during a Soviet drilling accident that hit a gas cavern, causing the drilling rig to fall in and the earth to collapse underneath it. <\/p>\n

To prevent the dangerous fumes from spreading, the Soviets decided to burn off the gas by setting it on fire.<\/p>\n

The pit has been ablaze ever since and previous attempts to put it out have been unsuccessful. <\/p>\n

The resulting crater\u201470 metres (229 feet) wide and 20 metres (65 feet) deep\u2014is a popular tourist attraction in the ex-Soviet country.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the president officially renamed it to the “Shining of Karakum”.<\/p>\n\n

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President aims for tobacco-free Turkmenistan by 2025<\/a>\n <\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2022 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Turkmenistan plans to close its ‘Gateway to Hell’ (2022, January 8)
\n retrieved 8 January 2022
\n from https:\/\/phys.org\/news<\/a>\/2022-01-turkmenistan-gateway-hell.html<\/p>\n

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