Friday, February 24, 2012

This Just Doesn't Look Safe


Derweze, also known as the door to hell, is a 70 meter wide hole in the middle of the Karakum desert in Turkmenistan. The hole was formed in 1971 when a team of soviet geologists had their drilling rig collapse when they hit a cavern filled with natural gas. In an attempt to avoid poisonous discharge, they decided to burn it off, thinking that the gas would be depleted in only a few days. Derweze is still burning today

4 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That is just wild! I think they underestimated burnoff time by a few decades.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Soviet science fails again. What a shock!

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Wiener roast! Bring some marshmallows too!

Nomad said...

Something like that happened in the States only it was a coal mine and it destroyed a town then a county.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania