Geologists Accidentally Opened the "Door to Hell"

"Geologists Accidentally Opened the "Door to Hell""

Sorry, politicians did that long, long ago.

"the geologists set it ablaze--and 35 years later, it's still burning."

So, who do we send the Carbon Tax bill to on this one?

I like that...

That's the true mind set of the poor feeble socialist minds out there. LoL

Cheers!

If only it could be put out and piped away instead....

I can't even imagine how much heat energy is liberated at that site.

If I understood some of the dimensions properly and the approximate area of its internal floor that is supporting an open flame it works out to around 1 billion BTU's. Maybe about enough to run a 100 megawatt power plant or power around 4000 -5000 average sized vehicles. It could be more or less though.

Nature toss's around such incredible levels of energy in comparison to us humans its mind boggleing.

Yes, it must be pumping out a lot of heat and CO2, but compared to the number of similar sized power plants and the millions of cars etc. it's not especially significant.

It's certainly not an argument against doing something to reduce human caused CO2 emissions.

As an engineer, I can't see the problem with moving towards more greater energy efficiency and a reducing atmospheric pollution (that's without even considering the climate change question).

The "climate change deniers" look a lot like the "pro tobacco" lobby.

The "climate change deniers" look a lot like the "pro tobacco" lobby.

Don't look at me! I deny nothing. I am all for global warming and doing my best to help bring it about!

Unfortunately I am rather sceptical that my efforts are actually doing anything humanly measurable though.

^{drums and dancing girls needed to dance around the fire.}

They are here. LoL

Yes, but they're wearing clothes.

...did they find Jimmy Hoffa at the bottom of that "accidental hole"?

Nope, only ex wives and girlfriends, I'm told. milo

Cool...er...Hot!

So, in thirty-five years has anyone thought to tap this inferno's energy? Maybe not build a full-scale power plant over it (you never know when it's gonna wink out, after all) but something?

Would make a great movie set... Ghostbusters XXXVIII: Mr. Stay Puft vs Rockhounds of the Apocalypse.

-e (rare cameo appearance)

PS: Hi, Milo!

Hi back at you mssr thermally conflicted cameo -e

milo

Can anyone tell me exactly where it is, please? I'd like to have a look on Google Earth.

The article includes map coordinates and links to map services

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door_to_hell#The_.22Door_to_Hell.22

Thanks for the link.

As far as I can make out (according to Google Earth), the co-ordinates given in the Wikipedia link (40°11'N, 58°24'E) are incorrect.

Google Earth puts it at 40°15'09.38"N, 58°26'22.03"E.

Don't know which is correct.

[I've had similar problems before - a year or so back someone on CR4 gave me their co-ords from their GPS, and Google Earth gave a position about 5 or 6 miles away with respect to the map/photo. Don't know which was right then, either.]

What would I do without CR4? How else would I hear about such cosmic coolness??