Daily Opinion #1: Fake news about Russian Meteor that is actually Gates of Hell

Yes. That title is a mouthful, indeed.

So, I was scrolling through facebook today and noticed an interesting random headline. It said "Meteor just fell in Russia, and it's still burning!!". It was posted by some media outlet I've never heard of called ebuzz. I would post the link, but, it's already been taken down. Anyway, it showed a 'live feed' of a giant crater full of fire, which itself looked real, but, I was pretty sure this was #fakenews because when performing a google search on the topic the only thing that popped up was this same facebook feed.

Don't even get me started on public comments on the feed - someone was even claiming that Hillary Clinton herself had sent a Meteor down on Russia. Yes, apparently now she has the power to control celestial events according to some. I can't even. I just can't.

Anyway, it looked like this:

_{Don't fall in}

Pretty impressive, eh? It sure LOOKED like a damn meteor hit there, and with video of all those flames, it was quite a site to look at.

This got me thinking - even if this was #fakenews, what in the hell WAS this video that I was looking at?

The truth is pretty cool

The answer was MUCH more impressive than I could have imagined. It's called the Darvasa gas crater, and it's located in Derweze Turkmenistan. It's more popularly known as "The Gates of Hell" and it certainly looks the part.

So, apparently, back in 1971, some Soviet engineers thought that this area could be a substantial oil field site. They set up a drilling rig to assess the situation. Soon after, they found this natural gas pocket and the ground beneath the rig caved in, causing a giant crater to form which was leaking natural gas from it.

The Soviet engineers thought that the leaking natural gas could be very poisonous risk to nearby towns. They thought that maybe burning off the gas would solve the problem and inherent risk to humans in the area. So what did they do?

They set the MF on fire

Yep. They set the damn thing on fire. They expected it to all burn off within a few weeks, but, alas, it has been burning for FOUR DECADES and is still going. It's still burning today, with no end in sight.

_{oops, I think I messed up guys}

This really got me thinking. Is there an unlimited supply of natural gas that the earth is constantly replenishing? Or are we inadvertently spending a limited resource with no chance to stop it? Have we figuratively and metaphorically actually opened "The Gates of Hell"???

Also, how far was the thought process behind this decision to light it on fire? Was it one or more engineers? Did they just decide to throw a match down there and it's just been burning ever since?

WOW. A lot of questions.

The answers

Is natural gas renewable?

Answer: nope. At least, not this type. It is a fossil fuel. We don't know how many more dinosaurs are down there and left to putrefy below the earth. There are renewable gas sources that are not fossil fuels, but, unfortunately this is not one of them. I guess the fire will burn until the earth says no more.

As far as the crater goes, it has become a tourist attraction and popular camping site for people in the area. Cool, I suppose. I couldn't find an answer to how and who decided to just set it on fire.

What's your opinion on all of this?

I believe that the story of the four decade long burning gates of hell should serve as an important lesson for humanity to stop drilling into the earth unnecessarily. Renewable energy is pretty damn important - if we keep burning fossil fuels and ruining the environment in the process, humanity is pretty doomed. There is enough science to go around for everyone these days. There are all kinds renewable resources and we simply shouldn't be doing this to ourselves anymore. When does it end?

The biggest thing to take away from this story is that sometimes the truth is much more interesting than #fakenews. Keep it real, folks.

And that's the daily opinion.

Picture source: Wikipedia.