Unlike many of the other disasters featured on this list, this fiery pit is the result of good intentions gone wrong. A team of Soviet geologists operating in Turkmenistan had constructed a drilling rig for scientific purposes and were alarmed when it collapsed into an enormous hole with a seventy-meter diameter. The freshly created pit instantly began to emit enormous quantities of methane.
Aware of the consequences of so much methane being released into the atmosphere, the geologists decided the best course of action would be to burn it off and get out of there as quickly as possible, figuring the pit of flame would extinguish itself as soon as the methane ran out. Unfortunately, we're still waiting. The fire started in 1971 and has burned ever since, with the ignited gas still being released into the air.