George Kourounis is a braver man than most.
The scientific explorer, who makes it his
business to document some of the most
extreme places on the planet, has taken his
professional curiosity a step further by
entering the planet’s 'Door to hell' in order to
salvage some soil.
The expedition site is the giant, methane-
burning, Darvaza Crater found in North
Turkmenistan, and Mr Kourounis entered it
in order to discover whether extreme life
forms on other planets can exist.
The crater itself is 225 ft wide and 99 ft deep,
and is a fiery molten pit filled with burning
methane gas. The pit has existed for more
than four decades, and it still remains unclear
how it came into being. One rumour is that
scientists were looking for natural gas and
managed to crack through the crust of the
earth, creating a pit that then burst into
flames.
Mr Kourounis travelled to the very bottom,
held by a series of ropes and encased in a
heat-reflective suit, using self-contained
breathing apparatus and a custom-made
climbing harness that wouldn't melt from the
extreme heat.
Once reaching the bottom, Mr Kourounis
collected soil samples in the hopes of leaning
whether life can survive in such extreme
conditions, and whether or not life could
survive in similar conditions on other planets.
"When you’re dangling in the middle you just
feel like a piece of laundry on the line, drying
out," the explorer is heard saying while
lowered into the pit. "I was looking around
and it looked like a doorway to hell – you
realise that if something were to go wrong
and fall that you’re dead from a fall," he said.
A documentation of the expedition called Die
Trying: Crater of Fire will be broadcast on
Sunday on National Geographic Channel.

AKUKO BACKYARD

how about volcano?

achinaboy: how about volcano?

Volcanoes don't erupt continuously for decades!

Very risky move

Joke.