Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17131
Location: North Carolina
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 Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2016 1:07 pm Post subject: Gateway to Hell - Outrageous Acts of Science |
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Okay, so what's the story on this big burning pit? Did a meteorite just right here, and these are the first pictures of the impact site?
No.
In the 1971 a team in Russian wildcatters (wildcatskys?) set up a camp and a drilling rig at the site to determine if it would be a good spot for an oil well.
It wasn't.
But it was great spot to make a camp and a drilling rig vanish into a huge hole when the cavern beneath collapsed.
The cavern was filled natural gas, so the brilliant engineers from Mother Russia decided to ignite the gas and burn it off, thereby saving the nearby town from asphyxiation from the colorless, odorless, kill-you-dead-where-you-stand natural gas.
It was estimated that the gas would burn out within a few weeks. Four decades later, the guys who bet it would take longer are rolling in rubles while being very careful not to make rude remarks about brilliant engineers from Mother Russia.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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