From what I understand (after reading the wikipedia page about it) the crater probably isn't putting out much more methane than the rest of the ground in the su

From what I understand (after reading the wikipedia page about it) the crater probably isn't putting out much more methane than the rest of the ground in the surrounding area. Wikipedia says the flames are seen there because the shape of the crater allows the gas to accumulate into concentrations that support flames, while in the rest of the area the gas leaking from the ground is rapidly diluted by the wind, but is nevertheless being released. Looking at the thing, this makes some sense to me. There are flames coming out the side of the walls of the crater all along the perimeter, from only a few meters below where the surface of the ground would be. The gas is obviously very shallow below ground in that region, and unless the top layer of soil is impermeable to gas I think a ton of it must be leaking out all over the area.