Trivia: Why have Turkmenistan’s “Gates of Hell” been burning for over 50 years?
Magnified sunlight
Oil
Arson
Natural gas
The correct answer is Natural gas
So why is this answer correct? : Roughly the size of a football field, Turkmenistan’s Darvaza gas crater was inadvertently lit in 1971 by Soviet geologists, who drilled into a pocket of natural gas they mistook for an oil field. Hoping to prevent the spread of methane, scientists set the crater ablaze, thinking it would burn out in a few weeks, but it’s been burning in the Karakum Desert ever since — earning the nickname “Gates of Hell.”