"The Door to Hell", as local residents at the
nearby town of Darvaza calls it, is a 70 meter wide crater in
Turkmenistan that has been burning continuously for 35 years. In 1971,
geologists drilling for gas deposits uncovered a huge underground
cavern, which caused the ground over it to collapse, taking down all
their equipment and their camp with it. Since the cavern was filled
poisonous gas, they dared not go down to retrieve their equipment, and
to prevent the gas escaping they ignited it, hoping it would burn itself
out in a couple of days. Unfortunately, there was a slight
miscalculation as to the amount of gas that was trapped, and the crater
continues to burn to this day.
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