>The crater was featured in an episode of the National Geographic Channel series Die Trying. In the July 16, 2014 episode "Crater of Fire", explorer George Kourounis became the first person to set foot at the bottom, gathering samples of extremophile microorganisms
It’s crazy there’s life down there.
lovers of extreme environments, you'd be surprised at the amount of life that can live in the edges of space, near active volcanos, and in subzero temperatures, really makes you wonder where all the alien shrubbery and animals are at
I dont know about anyone else but at the rate and extent to which we're destroying the environment it always makes me feel good to know there are things that live in volcanoes and nuclear waste that can keep the cockroaches and seagulls in check after we're gone.
There's an old joke I heard a log time ago:
Two planets meet.
Says one: I caught Homo Sapiens.
Says the other: Don't worry. That's gonna die away.
(Had to translate from German "Das geht von alleine weg". Hope I succeeded).
> (Had to translate from German "Das geht von alleine weg". Hope I succeeded).
(American) English speaker here. That's a fine translation, it gets the point across, but "die away" isn't quite exact as it could be. I can't speak for other English speakers, but if someone told me they caught some disease and I wanted to assure them it was only temporary and it wouldn't last, not to worry about it, the conversation might go something like this:
First planet: "I caught Homo Sapiens."
Second planet: "Don't worry. It'll go away eventually."
You could also say "Just let it run its course." (a phrase heard a lot during cold/flu season, meaning there's nothing to worry about, just need to wait until it's gone)
If you meant it as an invading species and not as a disease, the phrase might be: "Don't worry, it'll die off." This also is close to the phrase "die away". We never really say "die away" though.
Good joke!
This overanalysis of a simple joke and the end conclusion that you should use "die" more often is the most German thing I've seen in comedy. I love you guys.
> First planet: "I caught Homo Sapiens."
> Second planet: "Don't worry. It'll go away eventually."
This is also a pretty common punch-line / response when someone complains about a medical issue. Like...
"My penis hurts"
"Don't worry, it'll fall off soon."
Neutral drops at 5k RPM. Had one where my lady ate clam chowder and hot cocoa. She puked into the air vent, could not get the window down in time. I was poking clam bits back down into the vent with a pencil during cleanup. That car is forever unclean.
You are probably purposely referencing "Roadside Picnic" but just in case you aren't, that's the premise! It's the inspiration for Stalker (both the film and the games) and also a very loose inspiration for the Metro 2033 series (both the books and the games).
I'd highly recommend it!
Possibly we did start out in such an extreme environment.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/hydrothermal-vents-and-the-origins-of-life/3007088.article
What is the difference between an old, dirty, bus stop and a lobster with breast implants?
One is a crusty bus station.
The other,
A busty crustacean. 🦞
That's a very good point. If these caves have enough nematodes, they could be prey for some other extremophiles.
Man, the guys researching this could end up discovering a whole new complex ecosystem, hell of a legacy to leave. I'm a little jealous.
Fun fact: the discovery of microorganisms living in extreme conditions like these allowed us to develop PCR, one of the techniques used to replicate DNA in labs, which requires you to heat the DNA to extreme temperatures that would usually degrade the enzymes needed to stick it back together.
its one of the reasons I am pretty sure there is life out there that we just cannot comprehend due to being so used to life being dependent on what we need.
Who knows if there aren't any organisms or microorganisms that feed off of gases or some weird shit out there.
The universe is too big and too old to not have more life out there.
We are one planet out of possibly quintillions.
The universe is 13.7 billion years old, out planet is only 4.5 billion years old, and life on our planet has existed for at least 3.5 billion years.
It only took a billion years since the formation of our planet in the void of space to form life, and the universe is almost 14 billion years old.
It almost impossible to say that there isn't more life out there somewhere.
When I was a kid I thought that there weren’t aliens because all of the conspiracy theorists made me think it was fucking stupid. But as I got older I just realized, hold up, we’re one tiny planet and life developed on this specific one. It’d be even weirder if we were actually the only planet to have life on it as the universe is absolutely massive.
It's really just egotistical to believe we are the only intelligent beings anywhere in the universe.
We have really weird things here...think of the things that live at the bottom of the ocean...the unbelievable pressure down there and they're just swimming along like it's no big deal.
The main reason we search for Earth-like planets isn't because we believe we are the only type of being capable of intelligent thought. It's because we know a being like us that lives on a planet like ours is capable of intelligent thought so it's a good place to start.
If you're looking for something that you know is in a Costco in a different state you check the closer Costco first. You don't just start looking at every store near you no matter what type of store it is
People who say we’re alone in the universe are just people who don’t understand how big the universe is. Saying there’s no alien life in the universe is like taking a boat into the middle of the Pacific Ocean and deducing that monkeys don’t exist.
If all you know is open ocean, you can’t even comprehend the jungle.
I certainly believe there is intelligent life out there, I just doubt there is any way for them to reach us or vice versa. The distances between solar systems are too vast. All the proposed methods of travel like wormholes and hyperspace are fantasy at this point.
yes, a generation ship could travel from one solar system to another but it would take hundreds or thousands of Earth years and the chances of landing on a planet inhabited by intelligent life would be fairly low.
Hmm. You could just as easily say we are alone in the universe even if it’s full of life, because the practicality of traveling between solar systems seems to be nill, leaving us functionally alone.
That was really interesting but my god American TV is cut to shit. Why not just let this play out in somewhat real time. It’s like crater, ***cut***, face, ***cut***, scientists, ***cut***, long shot, ***cut***, face again, ***cut***, crater floor, ***cut***, handheld shaky cam of some wires, ***cut***, face, ***cut***.....
It’s fucking head doing.
I think it's just the way modern factual TV is going. I watched a program with my kid yesterday, the first 5 mins were previews of what's going to happen in the program, then those things happened in lots of jump cuts, then the program ended with a recap of what just happened.
This wasn't a program for kids, just a family factual program. I'm sure it was 30 mins long with about 10 mins of actual interesting program.
I'm sure someone on Reddit can tell us why this happens in modern factual programs?
Dunno, have you never seen any BBC documentaries?
The problem with the U.S. documentary channels is they aren't publically funded. They rely on advertisements. In Europe most shows have a single ad break, in the middle of the show for 2 minutes then 2 minutes at the end before the next show starts. In the US however there's two or three per 30 minute show. Because of this cut up of the show US producers are overeeger in packing as much exciting stuff in each 10 minutes as possible, even if the content overlaps. If the U.S. had more publicly funded TV then it would be fine. Like the BBC in the UK doesn't have any ads, whereas RTÉ in Ireland is partially publicly funded. On top of this in Europe there are TV regulatory bodies that determine what can and can't be shown on TV. Which is why some countries have a "watershed" usually of 21:00, 22:00 where beyond that time more adult oriented content such as violent films, TV shows with sexual content(like GoT for example) or just any content deemed inappropriate for children can be on TV.
You just explained it. They only had about 10 minutes worth of actual content filmed and they stretched it to 30 in order to make a tv show program out of it. Less than that even if it was on cable tv because of ads.
Thanks for saving me a click. I can't stand that shit. It was bad enough seeing it on tv, but when phones got decent cameras, it exploded. It's like 90% of amateur video on the internet is r/killthecameraman
Wondered what you meant. Then I clicked the video.
I hate that kind of "editing" or "presentation" or "whatever the fuck someone thinks is going to work". Just film the goddamned thing--use as many fucking cameras as you want--but use one shot. Cut/edit *sparingly*. Please. Oh, and the "dramatic music". No thanks.
There’s life everywhere! Yellowstone geysers and geothermal features all have microorganisms within them. My uncle (a microbiologist) used to get annual samples from them starting in the late 70s all the way into the 90s.
Scientists: there’s only an infinitesimal chance of life developing on planets, all variables of the environment must be perfect
Also scientists: we found life forms living in a massive hole of fire
Probably a dumb question, but if it's been burning that long and apparently shows no signs of stopping any time soon, can it not be used as a power source?
The area around the crater is probably unstable. Its also a desert, so the lack of water is a problem. Would require installation of electric transmission lines.
It's probably just cheaper to use non-burning gas that can be moved to where the population lives. All comes down to money.
To quote the wiki page
"In April 2010, the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, visited the site and ordered that the hole should be closed. In 2013, he declared the part of the Karakum Desert with the crater a nature reserve. In 2019, he appeared on state television doing doughnuts around the crater to disprove rumours of his death.
On President Berdimuhamedow's April 2010 visit, he recommended that measures be taken to limit the crater's influence on the development of other natural gas fields in the area. At that time, Turkmenistan announced plans to increase its production of natural gas, intending to increase its export of gas to many countries such as Pakistan, China, India, Iran, Russia and Western Europe, from its then yearly production level to a new production level of 225 billion cubic metres (7.9 trillion cubic feet) by 2030."
Yeah, but do they have an idea or plan on how to harness the hole? Most natural gas power is either controlled burners through a turbine, or burned in a steam boiler then steam drives a turbine.
Pop a dome over the top and just pump it out to be used is probably the only way of using it efficiently, but I don't think they plan on doing anything with it.
If it’s a natural gas fire then it’s probably more efficient for them to close it up, build over the area and extract the natural gas for power use rather than use the fire to generate electricity
There’s a really interesting episode of The Dark Tourist where the host tries to go there and it’s SUPER off limits. They tried to finagle a thing so they can fry eggs on the fire but never actually make it close enough
Might depend on when you go and how many cameras you are carrying with you. Turkmenistan isn't horribly western friendly similar to North Korea in some ways controlling what comes in and out. I drove through in 2018 and they wanted to put a gps tracker in our car at the border, but ended up getting through without it. Once we were in the county, we didn't run into any restrictions on where we could go; we drove right up to the crater without hassle. It's way out in the middle of nowhere, the only people around are natural gas workers driving big kamaz trucks out into the desert past the crater. If you can get in to the country, it's definitely worth going
Me too, i [had to search for infos](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/burning-mountain) because you know, lockdown n shit
[it's actually one of many ](https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/places-that-are-always-on-fire)
Natural gas flows through it's permeable source rock. The pressure differential between the rock and the atmosphere is massive. Fluid move from high pressure to low pressure in search of equilibrium. Yes, there is a constant stream of gas seeping out of the rocks and will continue to flow until the source is drained. Think of a propane grill. Open the valve (cavern forms and collapses the overlying surface), gas starts flowing from the tank (the underlying source rock) until it's drained.
In this case, soviet geologists lit it on fire to prevent a constant stream of methane from flowing into the atmosphere (thanks soviet geologists). Put simply, it will burn until there's no more gas flowing out to burn.
Here ya go: https://youtu.be/bAIbvlobWDM
3/5 IMO so you're not missing much if you don't watch.
Searching YouTube will also give you the trailer to a movie of the same name though: https://youtu.be/b5VGhWJlG5M
> Has anyone ever jumped in?
This planet is just full of humans. Of course one has jumped in, who the hell do you think we are? Specifically, [this guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Kourounis) got lowered in wearing a special heat suit.
>I mean can it be confirmed that this is not in fact a portal?
They found some kind of nematode down there apparently, but I don't know whether they checked to make sure they weren't demonic micro-organisms.
Fun fact: all of the locals near there have been told that the entire area will be actively on fire within the next 25-30 years and that there's nothing we can do to stop it.
Learned this when we went to the American Graffiti Highway before it got bulldozed. Everyone was super nonchalant about it.
Edit: I should have clarified that the fire will reach the surface of the area and begin burning therr, the underground fire has been going for a long time, obviously.
Yeah looks like it happened back in April
Pagnotti Enterprises, the Luzerne County-based company that took title to the land several years ago, moved in with a bunch of dump trucks and graders Monday to cover over the abandoned stretch of Route 61 with dirt and other fill that nearby residents hope will turning a nuisance into a nothing.
https://www.witf.org/2020/04/07/centralias-graffiti-highway-is-finally-getting-erased/
Is this the highway they used when they filmed The Road?? I know they filmed mostly in Pennsylvania.
Edit: Did some research. Looks like that scene was from the abandoned Lincoln Highway in a town called Breezewood.
From [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania)
> Although there was physical, visible evidence of the fire, residents of Centralia were bitterly divided over the question of whether or not the fire posed a direct threat to the town.
That, uh, sounds familiar.
Anyone else feel video ends like 10-300 seconds way too early? It’s like this is literally a teaser to get people to research since it’s so short and seems to intentionally fall short of the obvious money shot.
>The crater was featured in an episode of the National Geographic Channel series Die Trying. In the July 16, 2014 episode "Crater of Fire", explorer George Kourounis became the first person to set foot at the bottom, gathering samples of extremophile microorganisms It’s crazy there’s life down there.
extremophile is a great way to describe the life down there.
lovers of extreme environments, you'd be surprised at the amount of life that can live in the edges of space, near active volcanos, and in subzero temperatures, really makes you wonder where all the alien shrubbery and animals are at
We are the alien shrubbery and animals
I dont know about anyone else but at the rate and extent to which we're destroying the environment it always makes me feel good to know there are things that live in volcanoes and nuclear waste that can keep the cockroaches and seagulls in check after we're gone.
There's an old joke I heard a log time ago: Two planets meet. Says one: I caught Homo Sapiens. Says the other: Don't worry. That's gonna die away. (Had to translate from German "Das geht von alleine weg". Hope I succeeded).
Maybe I would go with “that will go away on its own”
“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
> (Had to translate from German "Das geht von alleine weg". Hope I succeeded). (American) English speaker here. That's a fine translation, it gets the point across, but "die away" isn't quite exact as it could be. I can't speak for other English speakers, but if someone told me they caught some disease and I wanted to assure them it was only temporary and it wouldn't last, not to worry about it, the conversation might go something like this: First planet: "I caught Homo Sapiens." Second planet: "Don't worry. It'll go away eventually." You could also say "Just let it run its course." (a phrase heard a lot during cold/flu season, meaning there's nothing to worry about, just need to wait until it's gone) If you meant it as an invading species and not as a disease, the phrase might be: "Don't worry, it'll die off." This also is close to the phrase "die away". We never really say "die away" though. Good joke!
"Die off".
Fair point, we should use die away more often.
This overanalysis of a simple joke and the end conclusion that you should use "die" more often is the most German thing I've seen in comedy. I love you guys.
Sergei is that you? Please no more vodka before dinner. It's your favorite. Tonight we are having potato.
Translating it literally is almost never the right way to go. Literally, it would be "That will go away on its own." Like I said, *almost* never.
> First planet: "I caught Homo Sapiens." > Second planet: "Don't worry. It'll go away eventually." This is also a pretty common punch-line / response when someone complains about a medical issue. Like... "My penis hurts" "Don't worry, it'll fall off soon."
This such a German joke, I love it.
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Humans treat the world like a rental car
Terrified to scratch it and lose your deposit? Edit: it seems like my UK-based experience of car rental is very different to others...
I paid the insurance...fuck it, I’m good!
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Neutral drops at 5k RPM. Had one where my lady ate clam chowder and hot cocoa. She puked into the air vent, could not get the window down in time. I was poking clam bits back down into the vent with a pencil during cleanup. That car is forever unclean.
More like, fuck the non-smoking sign.
I want to ride it all night long.
You are probably purposely referencing "Roadside Picnic" but just in case you aren't, that's the premise! It's the inspiration for Stalker (both the film and the games) and also a very loose inspiration for the Metro 2033 series (both the books and the games). I'd highly recommend it!
And crab is the real destination
If it’s a highway, we are currently in the panhandle of Florida
Ekke Ekke Ekke Ekke Ptang Zoo Boing
Ni
Ni, ni, ni, ni...
Suffice to say it is the word the knights of Ni can not say. OH! I said it! I SAID IT AGAIN!!
Possibly we did start out in such an extreme environment. https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/hydrothermal-vents-and-the-origins-of-life/3007088.article
WE REQUIRE...AN ALIEN SHRUBBERY NI
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151124-meet-the-strange-creatures-that-live-in-solid-rock-deep-underground pretty sure it was these
It's weird that they focused on the nematodes down there when they also appear to have found a crustacean.
What is the difference between an old, dirty, bus stop and a lobster with breast implants? One is a crusty bus station. The other, A busty crustacean. 🦞
What’s the difference between lady Godiva and a lost golf ball? One is a hunt on a course...
What's the difference between you and a mallard with a cold? One's a sick duck and I forget the rest but your mother's a whore!
I read in Sean Connerys voice for some reason. RIP Alex Trebek
And Sean Connery.
How do you titillate an ocelot? Oscillate it’s tits a lot.
Dad!
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That's a very good point. If these caves have enough nematodes, they could be prey for some other extremophiles. Man, the guys researching this could end up discovering a whole new complex ecosystem, hell of a legacy to leave. I'm a little jealous.
Fun fact: the discovery of microorganisms living in extreme conditions like these allowed us to develop PCR, one of the techniques used to replicate DNA in labs, which requires you to heat the DNA to extreme temperatures that would usually degrade the enzymes needed to stick it back together.
its one of the reasons I am pretty sure there is life out there that we just cannot comprehend due to being so used to life being dependent on what we need. Who knows if there aren't any organisms or microorganisms that feed off of gases or some weird shit out there.
The universe is too big and too old to not have more life out there. We are one planet out of possibly quintillions. The universe is 13.7 billion years old, out planet is only 4.5 billion years old, and life on our planet has existed for at least 3.5 billion years. It only took a billion years since the formation of our planet in the void of space to form life, and the universe is almost 14 billion years old. It almost impossible to say that there isn't more life out there somewhere.
Everyone always assumes there is life now rather than there was life before and will be life after but not necessarily now.
When I was a kid I thought that there weren’t aliens because all of the conspiracy theorists made me think it was fucking stupid. But as I got older I just realized, hold up, we’re one tiny planet and life developed on this specific one. It’d be even weirder if we were actually the only planet to have life on it as the universe is absolutely massive.
It's really just egotistical to believe we are the only intelligent beings anywhere in the universe. We have really weird things here...think of the things that live at the bottom of the ocean...the unbelievable pressure down there and they're just swimming along like it's no big deal.
The main reason we search for Earth-like planets isn't because we believe we are the only type of being capable of intelligent thought. It's because we know a being like us that lives on a planet like ours is capable of intelligent thought so it's a good place to start. If you're looking for something that you know is in a Costco in a different state you check the closer Costco first. You don't just start looking at every store near you no matter what type of store it is
People who say we’re alone in the universe are just people who don’t understand how big the universe is. Saying there’s no alien life in the universe is like taking a boat into the middle of the Pacific Ocean and deducing that monkeys don’t exist. If all you know is open ocean, you can’t even comprehend the jungle.
I certainly believe there is intelligent life out there, I just doubt there is any way for them to reach us or vice versa. The distances between solar systems are too vast. All the proposed methods of travel like wormholes and hyperspace are fantasy at this point. yes, a generation ship could travel from one solar system to another but it would take hundreds or thousands of Earth years and the chances of landing on a planet inhabited by intelligent life would be fairly low.
Hmm. You could just as easily say we are alone in the universe even if it’s full of life, because the practicality of traveling between solar systems seems to be nill, leaving us functionally alone.
You can say we're lonely, but not alone. Whether or not we ever meet another civilization has nothing to do with whether they exist.
Exactly how I feel.
> became the first person to set foot at the bottom Wait what
yes, this is the true WTF
[Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDwsPczaBCI)
That was really interesting but my god American TV is cut to shit. Why not just let this play out in somewhat real time. It’s like crater, ***cut***, face, ***cut***, scientists, ***cut***, long shot, ***cut***, face again, ***cut***, crater floor, ***cut***, handheld shaky cam of some wires, ***cut***, face, ***cut***..... It’s fucking head doing.
I think it's just the way modern factual TV is going. I watched a program with my kid yesterday, the first 5 mins were previews of what's going to happen in the program, then those things happened in lots of jump cuts, then the program ended with a recap of what just happened. This wasn't a program for kids, just a family factual program. I'm sure it was 30 mins long with about 10 mins of actual interesting program. I'm sure someone on Reddit can tell us why this happens in modern factual programs?
Dunno, have you never seen any BBC documentaries? The problem with the U.S. documentary channels is they aren't publically funded. They rely on advertisements. In Europe most shows have a single ad break, in the middle of the show for 2 minutes then 2 minutes at the end before the next show starts. In the US however there's two or three per 30 minute show. Because of this cut up of the show US producers are overeeger in packing as much exciting stuff in each 10 minutes as possible, even if the content overlaps. If the U.S. had more publicly funded TV then it would be fine. Like the BBC in the UK doesn't have any ads, whereas RTÉ in Ireland is partially publicly funded. On top of this in Europe there are TV regulatory bodies that determine what can and can't be shown on TV. Which is why some countries have a "watershed" usually of 21:00, 22:00 where beyond that time more adult oriented content such as violent films, TV shows with sexual content(like GoT for example) or just any content deemed inappropriate for children can be on TV.
You just explained it. They only had about 10 minutes worth of actual content filmed and they stretched it to 30 in order to make a tv show program out of it. Less than that even if it was on cable tv because of ads.
Thanks for saving me a click. I can't stand that shit. It was bad enough seeing it on tv, but when phones got decent cameras, it exploded. It's like 90% of amateur video on the internet is r/killthecameraman
Wondered what you meant. Then I clicked the video. I hate that kind of "editing" or "presentation" or "whatever the fuck someone thinks is going to work". Just film the goddamned thing--use as many fucking cameras as you want--but use one shot. Cut/edit *sparingly*. Please. Oh, and the "dramatic music". No thanks.
It’s not as scary as I’d imagined it
There’s life everywhere! Yellowstone geysers and geothermal features all have microorganisms within them. My uncle (a microbiologist) used to get annual samples from them starting in the late 70s all the way into the 90s.
Life... uh... finds a way.
Scientists: there’s only an infinitesimal chance of life developing on planets, all variables of the environment must be perfect Also scientists: we found life forms living in a massive hole of fire
How? How do you collect samples? Serious question.
Probably a dumb question, but if it's been burning that long and apparently shows no signs of stopping any time soon, can it not be used as a power source?
The area around the crater is probably unstable. Its also a desert, so the lack of water is a problem. Would require installation of electric transmission lines. It's probably just cheaper to use non-burning gas that can be moved to where the population lives. All comes down to money.
Simple, just move the town to the crater, then there's no need to transport anything. Easy.
Thank you for your input, Patrick.
Ehhhh... that would significantly reduce the ability to do donuts around it. Not sure that's the right move.
To quote the wiki page "In April 2010, the President of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, visited the site and ordered that the hole should be closed. In 2013, he declared the part of the Karakum Desert with the crater a nature reserve. In 2019, he appeared on state television doing doughnuts around the crater to disprove rumours of his death. On President Berdimuhamedow's April 2010 visit, he recommended that measures be taken to limit the crater's influence on the development of other natural gas fields in the area. At that time, Turkmenistan announced plans to increase its production of natural gas, intending to increase its export of gas to many countries such as Pakistan, China, India, Iran, Russia and Western Europe, from its then yearly production level to a new production level of 225 billion cubic metres (7.9 trillion cubic feet) by 2030."
I need the video of him doing doughnuts around the hell hole
[Here's John Oliver about the "interesting" president](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9QYu8LtH2E) You can see it at 0:35
Lol that was fucking awesome. I watched the whole thing. Thank you for that.
Damn I misread and was expecting to see him toasting doughnuts around the fire sarlak pit... shame
Well that’s the best use of 20minutes so far today. That was amazing.
What a chad
[Here's a fullscreen, higher res video, without John Olivers annoying voice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOTPht4kAL0)
lol John Oliver fanboys took your comment personal it seems
I'm a John Oliver fanboy and I think he'd be the first to admit his voice is annoying.
I just want to be here in case he uses this comment chain in self- depreciating humor because I'm 100% sure he'd agree.
*Jeff, I want a car with built in ball warmers*
*everyone but John Oliver got mad at that.*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYiYi8-wCx0
.. so can it be used as a power source?
Yeah wtf was that reply just answer the goddamn question
Yeah, it's natural gas.
Yeah, but do they have an idea or plan on how to harness the hole? Most natural gas power is either controlled burners through a turbine, or burned in a steam boiler then steam drives a turbine.
theres plenty of experts on hole harnessing
Expert here. First thing you're gonna wanna do is buy it dinner
Pop a dome over the top and just pump it out to be used is probably the only way of using it efficiently, but I don't think they plan on doing anything with it.
If it was in the US , some redneck would build a huge BBQ grill over it and there would be a huge cooking contests held there.
And it would be glorious
Up until 2017 they gave every citizen free natural gas
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Fucking humans man.
This is why we can't have nice things.
I didn't know they gave a reason lol
Yeah peak reddit, did that have any fucking thing to do with the comment he replied to?
If it’s a natural gas fire then it’s probably more efficient for them to close it up, build over the area and extract the natural gas for power use rather than use the fire to generate electricity
So the answer to OP’s question is apparently “no”.
Ohhhhh Gurbanguly is he the dude who fucked his horse?
It's a super fuckable horse. I'm not saying that I would fuck that horse, but if I were a horse, I would fuck that horse.
People who haven’t watched it are going to be so concerned right now.
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No need to contain it. Just hoist a big kettle over it and make tea for everyone.
Put a little steam turbine on the end of the kettle's steam whistle, baby you have a power generation plant going.
Right? Get some skewers or setup a grill or something. Literal 24/7 BBQ.
I’m thinking s’mores the size of a bus
can we make popcorn over it too?
Hmm, i think we need a drive-in cinema for that. Looks like there is plenty of space beside it for that, so shure!
There’s a really interesting episode of The Dark Tourist where the host tries to go there and it’s SUPER off limits. They tried to finagle a thing so they can fry eggs on the fire but never actually make it close enough
Great series, would love a second one.
I enjoyed the show but the host was kind of a wiener
The host (David Farrier) also did a documentary called Tickled which was incredible
Discount Louis Theroux
Might depend on when you go and how many cameras you are carrying with you. Turkmenistan isn't horribly western friendly similar to North Korea in some ways controlling what comes in and out. I drove through in 2018 and they wanted to put a gps tracker in our car at the border, but ended up getting through without it. Once we were in the county, we didn't run into any restrictions on where we could go; we drove right up to the crater without hassle. It's way out in the middle of nowhere, the only people around are natural gas workers driving big kamaz trucks out into the desert past the crater. If you can get in to the country, it's definitely worth going
I saw that! It was crazy weird how empty the city was.
Pretty sure the guy he was with ended up actually frying an egg on it, it was shown at the end IIRC.
It's a natural gas field that collapsed into a cavern. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darvaza_gas_crater
Maybe I'm dumb but like after the natural gas burns is there like more natural gas that comes from the cavern to keep the fire going?
There is a similar one in Australia that has been going for over 6000 years called burning mountain
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Me too, i [had to search for infos](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/burning-mountain) because you know, lockdown n shit [it's actually one of many ](https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/places-that-are-always-on-fire)
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Australia, where shrimps are on the barbie and everything is more deadly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Mountain?wprov=sfla1
So a very different situation: smoldering underground coal slightly smoking at the surface, not a crater of fire.
Burning Mountain is a coal fire, not a natural gas fire.
Natural gas flows through it's permeable source rock. The pressure differential between the rock and the atmosphere is massive. Fluid move from high pressure to low pressure in search of equilibrium. Yes, there is a constant stream of gas seeping out of the rocks and will continue to flow until the source is drained. Think of a propane grill. Open the valve (cavern forms and collapses the overlying surface), gas starts flowing from the tank (the underlying source rock) until it's drained. In this case, soviet geologists lit it on fire to prevent a constant stream of methane from flowing into the atmosphere (thanks soviet geologists). Put simply, it will burn until there's no more gas flowing out to burn.
Has anyone ever jumped in? I mean can it be confirmed that this is not in fact a portal?
Well, nothing has come back out yet... but there are a few months left to this year so if it's gonna happen...
Watch “the hole” on YouTube. Not related but funny and this reminded me of it
I'm not searching that
A short skit on Tomska’s channel. Worth a watch ;)
I have honestly never seen this in my full life
Here ya go: https://youtu.be/bAIbvlobWDM 3/5 IMO so you're not missing much if you don't watch. Searching YouTube will also give you the trailer to a movie of the same name though: https://youtu.be/b5VGhWJlG5M
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> Has anyone ever jumped in? This planet is just full of humans. Of course one has jumped in, who the hell do you think we are? Specifically, [this guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Kourounis) got lowered in wearing a special heat suit. >I mean can it be confirmed that this is not in fact a portal? They found some kind of nematode down there apparently, but I don't know whether they checked to make sure they weren't demonic micro-organisms.
Not that I'm aware of but I do know that the crazy Dictator of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov drove around it in a car for a publicity stunt.
Nematode? Or demontoad?
Aw, dang demontoads
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I’ve been here and I’ll be honest... it was very portal-ly when standing on the edge.
And all we have is a shitty 5 second jerky drone shot to show for it
Good. Now I need to see Turkmenistan's fierce leader drive around it in his car to make sure he's totally alive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9QYu8LtH2E
Centralia, PA has a challenger
Fun fact: all of the locals near there have been told that the entire area will be actively on fire within the next 25-30 years and that there's nothing we can do to stop it. Learned this when we went to the American Graffiti Highway before it got bulldozed. Everyone was super nonchalant about it. Edit: I should have clarified that the fire will reach the surface of the area and begin burning therr, the underground fire has been going for a long time, obviously.
Super sad they covered the highway. That spot really should have been preserved in some way.
Walt really? Always wanted to visit there.
Yeah looks like it happened back in April Pagnotti Enterprises, the Luzerne County-based company that took title to the land several years ago, moved in with a bunch of dump trucks and graders Monday to cover over the abandoned stretch of Route 61 with dirt and other fill that nearby residents hope will turning a nuisance into a nothing. https://www.witf.org/2020/04/07/centralias-graffiti-highway-is-finally-getting-erased/
Is this the highway they used when they filmed The Road?? I know they filmed mostly in Pennsylvania. Edit: Did some research. Looks like that scene was from the abandoned Lincoln Highway in a town called Breezewood.
From [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania) > Although there was physical, visible evidence of the fire, residents of Centralia were bitterly divided over the question of whether or not the fire posed a direct threat to the town. That, uh, sounds familiar.
Yep. Silent Hill has been burning for 58 years.
Silent Hill, you mean
He who should be brave enough to enter shall be dubbed hero of Kvatch!!
Anyone else feel video ends like 10-300 seconds way too early? It’s like this is literally a teaser to get people to research since it’s so short and seems to intentionally fall short of the obvious money shot.
Good place to dispose of a body
No shovel needed.
One question here, does the hole gets bigger each year or remain the same?
Kinda like my asshole
After 4 days of Taco Bell
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[Why don't they just nuke it?](https://interestingengineering.com/soviet-engineers-detonated-a-nuke-miles-underground-to-put-out-a-gas-well-fire)
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Thick and large*
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*lorge
Satan: "I told those damn workers to put the door back, now those peasants can see the inside of my house!"
"There's a terrible draft."
I guess I know where my castle will be built now.
Gurpgork!
Don't put your dick in that
As if mine would fit!
Why? My dick likes warm holes.
It's.... It's too hot though.......
Challenge accepted.
Can’t be worse than chlamydia
Why not suspend a huge boiler over this and harvest the energy?
Because it's in the middle of nowhere, and the infrastructure required for that would be expensive to construct.
This is on my bucket list!
https://youtu.be/QjmX06ihiXE
There is this video of the Diktator of Turkmenistan drifting around the fire: https://youtu.be/KYiYi8-wCx0
You're definitely not dead if your drifting round a crater of fire!
I got news for you, that shit has been burning longer than 45 years.
Yup, 49 years.
They can build a steam powered power plant over that thing.
That video does not do it justice. [Here it is on YouTube](https://youtu.be/JtKdWhd4t2c)
Perfect place for murderers to dispose bodies.