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"Door to Hell" starting to close after 54 years (newatlas.com)

submitted 1 month ago by Aatube@kbin.melroy.org to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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there's no disputing a ~100-foot-deep (~30-m), 226-foot-wide (69-m) pit of relentless fiery fury that's been burning for around 50 years in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan

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[-] jballs@sh.itjust.works 104 points 1 month ago

In 2013, the crater's flame intensity and temperatures were at its recorded peak. At the same time, renowned Canadian explorer, George Kourounis, became the first – and only – person to enter the crater wearing a full heat-reflective Kevlar/Nomex suit and a firefighter's Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) to provide oxygen. He descended to the 752 °F (400 °C) crater floor and retrieved soil samples. Scientists later found extremophile bacteria living in the scorched earth samples Kourounis provided.

Wtf that's the craziest part of this story!

[-] rikudou@lemmings.world 29 points 1 month ago

Oh yeah, extremophiles are pretty metal. Like, some of them can survive being in space.

this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2025

183 points (100.0% liked)

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