Would This Happen Today?
In 1971, a site was identified by Soviet scientists as an area that was believed to house a substantial oil field in Turkmenistan.
Drilling began but the ground beneath the drilling rig soon collapsed, creating a wide crater that was believed to be releasing large quantities of methane gas, a potential danger to the nearby villages in Derweze, Turkmenistan.
Scientists decided that the most efficient way to solve the problem would be to burn off the poisonous gases - by doing so, it was expected that all of the gas in the crater would be burnt off within days.
More than four decades later, though, the crater is still ablaze with endless flames and boiling mud - and hundreds of tourists flock to visit it every year.
The Karakum Desert, where Derweze is located, has one of the largest gas reserves in the world.
Should science have found a way to harness all that lost energy? What contributions to CO2 emissions would something like this cause?
Does it bring into question the dangers of drilling/fracking near built up areas and does it reinforce the need for more green energy even if the cost if higher?