11 Responses to “Interesting Images”

1. Paul Woodland
   March 31st, 2008 @

   “As the underground cavern was filled with natural gas (relatively close to oil, right?) it would have killed virtually everything around had someone not had the idea to ignite the gas and let it burn off instead of polluting the surrounding area.”

   I don’t buy it.

   Sure natural gas and oil share some similar chemical compounds, but natural gas is a gas and oil is a thick goopy sludge. They really are not much alike at all. Natural gas goes boom when exposed to a cigarette or spark. Oil is more of a slow/fast burn.

   I don’t see how natural gas pollute the entire area. It’s just natural gas, the stuff you cook with, not sarin gas!

   My guess is that a spark from the rig lit it up, or a Turkman with a cigarette ventured a little to close. I’m not sure and I don’t have the time to research it. The event does not seem to be very well documented in the top search results.

2. Joel L. Friedlander
   March 31st, 2008 @

   I don’t buy it either, but for a different reason; oil riggers have known for over a century how to put out that sort of fire. After the First Gulf War there were hundreds of oil and natural gas fires that were set by the Iraqi invaders of Kuwait. They were all put out. This fire is left burning because it is seen as some sort of natural wonder. But if it pollutes the area I just don’t understand why they let it burn.

3. Paul Woodland
   March 31st, 2008 @

   Sometimes these fires can be so widespread and intense that you just can’t put them out, e.g. Centralia in my home state of PA. A coal fire was sparked 45 years ago and they’ve never been able to put it out.

4. Matt Cipriano
   April 1st, 2008 @

   Okay, so first off, the parallel between oil and natural gas was my own, just trying to attach this one to some earlier posts of yesterday, I admit, it was a bit of a stretch. In terms of the fire, according to what I read and how I interpreted the situation is that the amount of natural gas contained in the underground cavern would be enough to suffocate the area- Consider what happens if the pilot light on your stove goes out, the gas slowly starts to fill your apartment. Now consider an underground cavern which has enough natural gas to burn steadily for 35 years. I am not saying it would have eventually killed everything within a 100 mile radius, but I am guessing it would have some pretty serious effects on the surrounding areas.

5. Paul Woodland
   April 1st, 2008 @

   I really don’t think there would have been much effect at all. Not everything that provides power to human beings is poisonous to the environment, though the Green movement has done an excellent job creating this false impression.

6. Matt Cipriano
   April 1st, 2008 @

   Yes, but I’m pretty sure natural gas is poisonous to other living things…

7. Paul Woodland
   April 1st, 2008 @

   No. It’s not. That’s my point.

8. Matt Cipriano
   April 1st, 2008 @

   Okay, so I am off on that aspect, but if enough natural gas is in the environment it will still kill life though, the gas itself may not be poisonous, but if their is a high enough concentration in the environment it will cause suffocation. Put a living organism in a room with a high concentration of natural gas and chances are it is not going to last to long

9. Paul Woodland
   April 1st, 2008 @

   Well, if you put living things in a room with a high enough concentration of Oxygen they will die too. The things is that the natural gas would simply escape into the atmosphere, so there is no possibility for excessive concentrations. Anyway, cool pictures.

10. Josh Friedlander
    April 1st, 2008 @

    Looks like the gas is seeping up slowly through the earth. Keeping it lit means it burns off immediately rather than pooling and potentially creating a big boom.

11. Paul Woodland
    April 1st, 2008 @

    Gotcha. Now that makes sense.

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