------------------------------------------------------------
EXTINGUISH THE GATES OF HELL?
The president of Turkmenistan wants to extinguish ‘Gates of Hell’
Turkmenistan’s President wants to extinguish the flames of the “Gates of Hell” – a gas crater that has been burning steadily since 1971. This site is in the middle of the desert of Turkmenistan and has become a popular tourist attraction.
This ‘Hell Hole’ measures nearly 200 feet wide and over 70 feet deep. It all began when the ground collapsed into a sinkhole that began leaking natural gas. Geologists set fire to this humongous sinkhole to prevent the dangerous uncontrolled spread of gas. They expected it to burn itself out after a couple of months, but that was 41 years ago.
Turkmenistan’s president wants the fires put out supposedly for environmental reasons but geologists and health science experts don’t agree. I spoke with Gura Versh, a scientist who has studied this hole for years. He says, “To extinguish this fire will mean the spread of unburned flammable and toxic gases from this well. If the government cannot find a way to cap or plug this before putting out the fire they will be courting disaster. There is far less risk to the environment by allowing clean-burning gas to go on burning than to put out the fire and have uncontrolled spread of a greenhouse, poisonous, and highly explosive gas.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Putting out the fire will allow poisonous and explosive gases to spread.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
He makes sense, and I hope the Turkmenistan government has a plan.
I’m Max, and that’s the way I see it!
No comments:
Post a Comment