In 1971, the mesmerizing /ˈmez.mə.

raɪz/ (заворожує) sight of the Darvaza Gas Crater was

unintentionally /ˌʌn.ɪnˈten.ʃən.əl.i/ ( ненавмисно) created by Soviet geologists. Situated near
the village of Darvaza, meaning 'gate' in Turkmen, they accidentally pierced /pɪəs/ (пробили) a
сavern /ˈkæv.ən/ (печеру) filled with natural gas. An unfortunate accident led to equipment
falling into a newly formed cavernous hole, from which gas began to escape. With concerns
/kənˈsɜːn/ (побоюючись) about the potential release (викид) of poisonous gases, the team
decided to ignite/ɪɡˈnaɪt/ (запалити) the gas. The expectation was the fire would
extinguish(згасне) after consuming /kənˈsjuː.mɪŋ/ (споживання) the available fuel within a
few days, but surprisingly, the fire still burns today.

It’s hard to get a story straight as to exactly what happened. If you go onto the Internet and
do any kind of research you`ll hear that the crater formed in 1971 and was lit almost
immediately by soviet geologists.

Explorer George Kurunis in 2013 set out on expedition to study the dynamics /daɪ
ˈnæm.ɪks/ inside the crater for national geographic. He has met with 2 local geologists. Those
geologists from Turkmenistan told him a different story, they said that the crater actually
formed in the late 1960s and was gurgling /ˈɡɜː.ɡəl/ (булькати) with gas and mud for quite a
few years and wasn't actually ignited until the 1980s. It's really clouded in mystery.

Here is no kind of official record or report or any kind of mention on paper of this
incident. Interesting fact to get in mind, anything related to gas, oil, natural resources during
soviet times was considered strategic and top secret.

There is controversy /ˈkɒn.trə.vɜː.si/ (суперечка) about forming this crater as to whether it

was accidentally ignited, perhaps by a lightning strike or was lit on fire intentionally. One
theory is that the soviets used a technique /tekˈniːk/ known as flaring - a common practice in
natural gas extraction /ɪkˈstræk.ʃən/ (видобуток) in which excess gas (надлишковий газ)is
intentionally burned for safety and financial reasons. So I’m not sure that they gave a lot of
thought at that time because they knew that the soviet union had a lot of gas. Rather than giving
this a lot of thought and trying to use that more rationally or putting gas to the pipeline which
requires the building of an infrastructure they would just burn it. Unfortunately, this problem
hasn’t been solved until today.

From an environmental perspective it’s terrible. It’s uncontrolled release of a greenhouse

gas into the atmosphere but it’s much better to release carbon dioxide /daɪˈɒk.saɪd/ rather than
methane into the atmosphere.