‘Door To Hell’ is finally closing after burning for 54 years

Scientists have announced that the fire is starting to fade.

The Door To Hell, or the Darvaza gas crater, lies in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert.

It was formed in 1971 when Soviet geologists accidentally collapsed a natural gas chamber while drilling, and fearing the release of poisonous gas, they set it alight.

However, this didn't work, and the blaze has remained ever since (so the story goes, there's actually no record of the incident).

Another twist in the tale came when scientists at an international conference in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat revealed that the crater has started to burn out.

Irina Luryeva, director of Turkmenistan's state-owned energy company Turkmengaz said at the conference: “The reduction [in fires] is nearly threefold."

While there's only anecdotal evidence, it is believed that the only species that would survive in the crater are spiders.

Research suggests that spiders can survive in high‑temperature, gas‑rich environments such as Darvaza.

"The effects of temperature on spider prey-hunting, web-building, sexual signalling, and habitat selection are well-documented," Hiaoguo Jiao et al reported in a 2010 study published in the Journal of Thermal Biology.

A particularly attention-grabbing story associated with the gas crater is that spiders throw themselves into it.

Similar to moths to a flame, spiders too are attracted to light and so they are lured perilously close to the rim, at which point they simply drop straight in.

Interesting stuff.