GETTY IMAGES, PETE LAWRENCE X2 ILLUSTRATION: JAMES CLAPHAM
Most fires burn through their fuel in a few hours, days or weeks. When underground fossil fuel deposits catch alight, however, the fires can rage for decades.
The Darvaza Gas Crater, also known as the ‘Gates of Hell’, is a 60m-wide (196ft) pit in Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert, which has been ablaze for at least 40 years. The origins of the crater are disputed. Some claim it opened in the 1970s when a rogue Soviet gas drilling rig accidentally punctured an underground pocket of natural gas; others believe it formed naturally in the 1960s.