Four immaculate pickup trucks race at full speed toward the Derweze crater. Known as the “Door to Hell,” this site in Turkmenistan draws the handful of foreign tourists who manage to obtain a visa each year. Seventy meters across, the Derweze crater has been burning continuously since 1971, when Soviet geologists discovered the site and began setting up drilling infrastructure. The ground beneath a platform gave way, opening up the wide Derweze crater. Once it had collapsed, the pit was set alight to burn off the gas, rendered unusable, and limit the consequences of the vast quantities of methane suddenly venting into the atmosphere. At the time, combustion was not expected to last more than two weeks. The “Door to Hell” has now been an open-air inferno for 50 years: the stuff of photogenic landscapes, and a symbol of ecological disaster. Located in the Karakum Desert, a territory roughly the size of Germany, natural gas reserves are trapped between countless sedimentary layers, ensuring a slow but unrelenting burn.

Photo credits : Crédits photo : Anton Pfaller (Germany, @apr_jnr)

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