The Door To Hell

Darvaza is a small village located in the middle of the Kara-Kum desert in Turkmenistan, an ex-soviet republic. Close by, a place has been in flames for over three decades. Known by it inhabitants as ‘the door to hell’, it’s a true flames exhibition. It all started when a team of geologists were drilling the region in search of natural gas.

At one point during the drilling the ground collapsed leaving a large gaping hole exposed: a cavern filled with natural gas. It was such a large hole, it ended up swallowing every piece of equipment around, as well as everything in its way. Unable to go inside it, because of its amazing size and depth and the fact that it was completely filled with gas, the group had the disastrous idea to set it on fire. Their aim was to keep the toxic gases from leaving the gigantic hole… They could hardly imagine the fire would never be extinguished again.

Some say the fire should last for another 250 years, others believe it’s “ad eternum”, but the fact is: no one actually knows the answer. No one knows if it would be possible, or even worth it, to try to use this amazing energy source either, but the truth is this flaming crater really does looks like a scary doorway to hell.

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Welcome to the South Pole

ust like the welcome sign you see whenever you enter a city, a visitor to the South Pole is greeted by a sign too. This sign is located near a marker which identifies the exact geographical location of the South Pole.





But this marker does not remain at the same place for ever. The ice on top of Antarctica is constantly moving a few meters per year, so a new marker is installed once a year. Notice on the picture above. You can see a line of them just to the left of the flag going back into the distance.

The two names on the sign are Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott, the two great explorers who were the first to make it to the south pole. Amundsen (a Norwegian) beat Scott (a British) by a month. Amundsen's group managed to return from the pole with success, while Scott's group all perished on the return trip.

The quote from Amundsen on the sign is:
"So we arrived and were able to plant our flag at the geographical South Pole."

while the quote from Scott on the sign is:
"The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected."

The South Pole station, which is located very near to the south pole, is named after these two great explorers, the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The building behind the sign, in the following picture, is this station. This station was built and is operated by the US Antarctic Program, and hence the U.S. flag.





The following picture is the ceremonial marker for the south pole. The flags around the reflective chrome ball represent the twelve signatory countries of the original Antarctic Treaty: UK, Austrailia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, US, Norway, France, Argentina, Japan, Belgium, Russia (USSR).





Pictures and Information from TrekEarth

More pictures of the Antartic and the south pole
SouthPoleStation
Department of Astrophysics
Cool Antartica
US Antartic Program

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Wow! That’s a lot of snow

 

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Mutating Vegetables

German photographer Uli Westphal likes to photograph vegetables, but not the usual kind. His work the Mutato-Archive presents a collection of non-standard fruits, roots and vegetables, that displays a dazzling variety of forms, colors and exotic shapes. Uli Westphal writes

The complete absence of botanical anomalies in our supermarkets has caused us to regard the consistency of produce presented there as natural. Produce has become a highly designed, monotonous product. We have forgotten, and in many cases never experienced, the way fruits, roots, and vegetables can actually look. The Mutato-Project serves to document, preserve and promote these last survivors of biological variety.

His specimens are picked up from Berlin’s Farmer Market.

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Nature is Sexy

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Zhangjiajie National Forest Park – Pandora on Earth

The floating ‘Hallelujah Mountains’ you saw on the movie Avatar has been inspired by a real place on Earth – China.

The Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in the Chinese province of Hunan features gigantic pillar like rocks, the kind you see throughout the movie. Only difference is they aren’t floating. They are the result of many years of erosion. The weather is moist year round, and as a result, the foliage is very dense. Much of the erosion which forms these pillars are the result of expanding ice in the winter and the plants which grow on them. These formations are a distinct hallmark of Chinese landscape, and can be found in many ancient Chinese paintings.
The film's director and production designers said that they drew inspiration for the floating rocks from mountains from around the world, including those in the Hunan province.

One of the park's quartz-sandstone pillars, the 3,544-foot Southern Sky Column, had been officially renamed "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain" in honor of the eponymous film in January 2010.

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