The Darvaza gas crater as it is officially known, is located in the country’s Karakum Desert and measures around 200 feet across. But it is no ordinary crater.
Fires fueled by flammable methane gas from vast underground reservoirs have been burning in the pit of the crater for many years—possibly five decades.
The flames are thought to have been burning continuously since 1971 when a Soviet drilling operation went awry, according to one popular theory—although this version of events has been disputed and the true account remains a mystery.
The story goes that after the accident occurred, Soviet scientists reportedly decided to set the methane on fire intentionally in order to prevent the gas from spreading, thinking that the blaze would quickly fizzle out after all the available fuel had burned up.
Earlier this year, Turkmenistan’s then president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, ordered experts to find a way to extinguish the fire for good, citing economic and environmental concerns.
In a televised address, Berdymukhamedov said the crater “negatively affects both the environment and the health of the people living nearby”, Agence France-Presse reported.
“We are losing valuable natural resources for which we could get significant profits and use them for improving the wellbeing of our people.”
Turkmen scientists have since been trying to come up with solutions to the problem. According to Turkmen news outlet Orient, some researchers have now proposed drilling an inclined well into the gas reservoir feeding the crater, which has become something of a tourist attraction. The forced extraction of gas from this well would control seepage and reduce uncontrolled gas emissions into the atmosphere, the researchers believe.
At a recent international investment forum in the capital Ashgabat, Bayrammyrat Pirniyazov, the head of Turkmenistan’s Natural Gas Institute, said that authorities are planning to seal off the crater, the Turkish Anadolu Agency reported.
He said that Turkmenistan was currently assessing offers from other countries to help shut down the gas leak, and that scientists from Belarus and Slovenia had expressed interest in taking part.
While Turkmen authorities have claimed that the crater is a safety and environmental concern, some scientists have expressed doubt that this is the case.
“It’s not hurting anyone,” Guillermo Rein, a fire scientist at Imperial College London, told Gizmodo.
While methane is a potent greenhouse gas, Mark Tingay, a petroleum geomechanics expert at the University of Adelaide, told the outlet that the crater is likely making only a “pretty tiny” contribution to the carbon output of Turkmenistan.
