China appears 'hell gate'

A mysterious crack in China made people worried and called it "Hell Gate".

"Hell gate" appears in China

In Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, China discovered a small crack. What is special is that the temperature at the crater is so high that when a tree is placed on it, it immediately ignites.

Picture 1 of China appears 'hell gate'
Place a cracked tree branch immediately burning it.

The phenomenon of pits / fissures from the ground that inside the fire is often called hellmouth - mouth of hell, or hell gate.

Urumqi is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most remote city in the world, the closest distance from it to the sea is 2500 km.

Currently it is also considered the most polluted land in the world , year-round covered with thick sulfur fog.

Geologist Hu Tan said that the " hell gate" here is actually the mouth of an underground coal pit when it automatically burns. This is also the opinion of fire expert Chen Long.

' The previous mining was probably the cause of the coal burning deep underground, the operators did not fill the mine again after the mining was stopped, and led to the fire burning up to the ground surface'.

If not prevented soon, the crater will expand, Chen Long said.

Picture 2 of China appears 'hell gate'

The phenomenon in Urumqi immediately reminds "hell gate " Derweze in Turkmenistan (above).

Located in Derweze village in the Karakum desert, Ahal province, this is a natural gas field . In 1971, while conducting geological exploration drilling in this land, scientists drilled an air bag.

The ground beneath the rig collapsed to form a large hole with a diameter of 70 meters. The large amount of methane released from the Derweze pit has created major environmental problems and caused great damage to nearby residents.

Fear of poison gas escaping from the hole, scientists decided to burn the hole Derweze. Environmentally, gas combustion is the best solution for methane to not enter the atmosphere causing a dangerous greenhouse effect .

At that time, people wanted poison gas to burn out in a few days, but it continued to burn for more than 40 years.