By AccuWeather staff writer
Published Aug. 19, 2020 3:18 PM
For 50 years, the "Gates of Hell," formally known as the Darvaza gas crater, has illuminated the skies of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan, yet it remains a mystery to most.
George Kourounis, who traveled to the center of the fiery pit, told AccuWeather that the Gates of Hell "is one of the most interesting places on Earth."
One hundred feet deep and 230 feet wide, it was created when a drilling rig collapsed into a sinkhole leaking methane while prospectors were on the hunt for natural gas. At some point it caught fire, although Kourounis said no one is sure if the blaze was set intentionally or not, and it has remained on fire ever since, for nearly half a century.
"It almost looks like a volcano out in the middle of the desert," he told AccuWeather in an interview.
Kourounis is the only person known to have descended into the center of the crater; he led an expedition for National Geographic to take soil samples at the bottom in 2013.
"The idea was to look to find out if there was any kind of bacteria that were living in this really extreme environment," he said. "There are planets outside of our solar system that have hot, methane-rich environments. So, if we could find even microscopic bacteria living in this crater, it could give us clues as to where we might want to look for life on other planets."
Kourounis said the expedition was a "complete success," as he found bacteria living at the bottom that was not previously listed in the DNA database -- meaning he had discovered new life inside the Gates of Hell.
Some of the lifeforms discovered were metabolizing the methane gas present in the crater, relying on a process known as chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis, so they received their energy from the methane gas rather than the sun.
"These are really extreme forms of life, they thrive in places that anything else would find completely, totally fatal," he said.
Silhouette of an expedition member enjoying the view of the Darvaza flaming gas crater at night. (Photo/George Kourounis)
Considering the extremely dry conditions of the hot crater in the middle of the desert, the people on the National Geographic team were not sure if they would find bacteria, which is usually present in wet environments. Their findings have now opened the doors for future discoveries, particularly on other planets.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
"What we learned is that it is possible for microscopic life to survive and even thrive in these really extreme conditions," Kourounis said. "So now, moving forward, when we send probes to other planets outside of our solar system into deep space years from now, maybe even decades from now, we have an idea of the places where we should look."
Even though he believes it will not be in his lifetime that life is found on other planets, Kourounis said the experience in the crater was as close as he could get to "being on another planet."
While the preparations for the expedition took two years, Kourounis, who describes himself as "a global explorer, adventurer and storm chaser," had just 17 minutes to spend at the bottom to collect soil samples and conduct temperature readings.
Darvaza, Turkmenistan Expedition EC0649-13 - George Kourounis, dressed in a heat-resistant aluminum suit, tests the temperatures at the edge of the Darvaza flaming gas crater. (Photo/George Kourounis)
He and others on the expedition team quickly learned that the crater functions like a convection oven, meaning colder air sinks to the bottom in the center and heats up at the bottom from the fire, allowing the hotter air to then rise along the sides. Standing even on the edge at the top felt like being dry roasted, Kourounis said.
The jets of fire sounds like the roar of an airplane engine, rather than a crackling campfire.
The hottest temperature Kourounis was able to measure while in the crater was over 700 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prior to even entering the country, Kourounis practiced the maneuvers he would need to do for the exhibition while in his home country of Canada, and even went as far as lighting himself on fire -- twice.
"I actually hired a stunt man to light me on fire like you'd see in a Hollywood action movie," Kourounis said. "That was so I could get used to the idea of being in close proximity to fire without panicking, because I know the last place in the world I want to start panicking is in the bottom of a crater in the desert in Turkmenistan."
For two intervals of 30 seconds, he was completely on fire from head to toe, which he described as "an intense experience."
After burning consecutively for 50 years, it is unclear if or when the fire will ever go out, but according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alan Reppert, it is unlikely the weather could work as a natural extinguisher for the flames.
"The crater is underground and big enough that the weather would really have no effect on it," Reppert said.
Darvaza, Turkmenistan Expedition EC0649-13 - Colorful sunrise at the Darvaza flaming gas crater. (Photo/George Kourounis)
While the weather may have no effect on the state of the fiery pit, Reppert said the temperature reaches triple digits for the better part of the year in the Turkmenistan Desert, and rain seldom falls there.
Even in the rare event that it does rain in the parched desert, the rain does not put out the fiery crater. According to Kournounis, due to the extreme heat of the crater, the rare rain does not even hit the crater itself, rather it falls in the surrounding area. Any rain falling directly down to the crater evaporates from the extremely high temperatures.
Despite the harsh weather conditions, the crater has created what Kourounis called a "unique ecosystem that's not found at any other place on Earth."
"At night, we'd be camped outside the crater and there would be flocks of birds that would fly over the crater, and they would even dip down into the crater," he said. "We found out that they were chasing the moths and other insects that were attracted to the light of the fire at night."
Turkmenistan, which is located north of Iran and east of the Caspian Sea, is run by an autocratic dictatorship, so one of the biggest struggles the National Geographic team faced when embarking on this journey was simply getting permission to enter the country, a process that took Kourounis two years.
Darvaza flaming gas crater at dawn. Light from the crater illuminates dust in the air above the crater. (Photo/George Kourounis)
He compared the Turkmenistan government to that of North Korea's, and said he and his team were spied on for the duration of the trip, through bugged hotel phones, secret police officers posing as their drivers, and even men in trucks watching them from a distance with binoculars.
Because of the government's strict nature, others who have tried to enter the Gates of Hell have been denied, and Kourounis stands as the only person to ever reached the bottom -- even holding a record in the Guinness Book of World Records for the accomplishment.
The Gates of Hell has since become the largest tourist attraction in Turkmenistan, and is now surrounded by fencing, bathrooms and campsites. When the National Geographic team went on the expedition, however, the crater was in a barren location, surrounded only by desert.
"The place is so absolutely beautiful, I found it hypnotizing," Kourounis said. "[It's] this beacon of light, especially at night, it lights up the whole sky."
RELATED:
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
No comments:
Post a Comment