Turkmenistan's 'Door to Hell' has burned since a 1971 drilling accident

Soviet engineers drilling for gas in the Karakum Desert hit a hidden cavern and the ground collapsed into a crater some 70 meters wide. To stop poisonous methane from spreading, they set it alight, expecting the gas to burn out in days. More than fifty years later the Darvaza crater was still smoldering, though new wells drilled since 2024 to redirect nearby gas have finally started dimming its famous flames.

— Wikipedia contributors, Darvaza gas crater — Wikipedia; crater formed 1971