Door to Hell

Similar but different - naturally occurring fires of Chimaera: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanarta%C5%9F" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Yanarta%C5%9F</a><p>Believed to be the origin of the stories of Mount Chimaera.<p>Short hike out from Cirali in Turkey on the south coast. You can extinguish a flame temporarily but it will soon re-ignite. Picture of the area here:<p><a href="http://www.fazturkey.com/Files/User/Product/Orjinal/430_cirali.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fazturkey.com&#x2F;Files&#x2F;User&#x2F;Product&#x2F;Orjinal&#x2F;430_cira...</a>

Coal mine fire burning since 1962 in Pennsylvania:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Centralia_mine_fire</a>

The Oklo[1][2][3] natural nuclear reactor is even stranger.<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklo" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Oklo</a><p>[2] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor</a><p>[3] <a href="http://jdlc.curtin.edu.au/research/oklo/oklo.cfm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jdlc.curtin.edu.au&#x2F;research&#x2F;oklo&#x2F;oklo.cfm</a>

Ha. 1971? I used to occasionally drive by one in Kirkuk Iraq that is featured in the old testament. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Gurgur" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Baba_Gurgur</a><p>It was the safest route between two of the bases we frequently traveled between, but the sulfur smell was <i>horrible</i>.

Fascinating; aren&#x27;t fires like these typically extinguished by starving them of oxygen, for instance with an explosive charge? Wikipedia doesn&#x27;t even say if it&#x27;s been attempted, and the panaorma makes the site look like it would be small enough to be feasible.. (IANA natural gas fire fighter.)

Note to people complaining about the waste of gas and CO2 emission: this is a drop in the bucket. <i>Vast</i> quantities of gas from oilfields is flared, deliberately, continuously.<p><a href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-09-03/gas-flaring-the-burning-issue" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.resilience.org&#x2F;stories&#x2F;2013-09-03&#x2F;gas-flaring-the...</a><p>&quot;140-150 billion cubic meters of flared natural gas translates into 270-290 million tons of C02 emissions per year. Accounting for roughly 1% of global carbon emissions&quot;

Serious question:<p>Why isn&#x27;t a power plant built over this?

Another fire that&#x27;s been burning for over 5 decades: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Centralia_mine_fire</a>

While I find that very interesting, that hoax which I just found on the bottom of the wikipedia page made me quite lough tough... <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_to_Hell_hoax" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Well_to_Hell_hoax</a>

Would a large fuel-air detonation above it suck enough air to put it out?

The actual legendary one is in Norway. Around Lofoten Point. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moskstraumen" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Moskstraumen</a>

Another one in India <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jharia#Coal_field_fire" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Jharia#Coal_field_fire</a>

Also check out <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanar_Dag" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Yanar_Dag</a>

How cool will be having a bbq over there?

I wonder what is the quantity of CO2 that is released annually by this crater. Must be tremendous.<p>I&#x27;m under the impression that whatever ways to pollute less we come up with, it will be annihilated by things like this or just sheer overpopulation.

On the first look it seems like a crater in Venus, Awesome.

Interesting that it was lit on purpose by Russian petro-chemists in 1971, and has been burning ever since. The fire was originally supposed to last a couple of weeks...