Back in 1971 in Turkmenistan, a Soviet oil rig allegedly found its way into a crater. In effort to get rid of the oil rig, a geologist set the crater on fire, resulting in the 50-year-old flame still burning today. The landmark produces 10,000 visitors annually, making it one of the largest tourism contributors in Turkmenistan. In contrast, back in 2013, a team of National Geographic researchers tasted success after 2 years of efforts in an attempt to gain entry into what was then (and still is) the most closed country.  George Kourounis, one of the researchers, was told by locals that most of the information regarding the crater is considered &quot;top secret&quot; by the government.Although it is not fully explainable why or how the flame has been burning for so many decades, researchers have concluded a few reasons that may have caused the result. Back in 1971, a drilling rig found its way into a natural gas cave which caused a puncture in a very potent pocket of gas. This puncture resulted in a gas leak occurring at an extremely alarming rate.

Analyzing the Blaze: The Science Behind the Gates of Hell

Meet your new favorite way to tell stories. With StoryMaps, the future of digital storytelling is here to bring together media, maps, and text in ways you never thought possible.

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Tell your story in minutes with frames. Drop your pictures into easy-to-use templates, then share these experiences with friends and social channels from anywhere. Frames creation is available now on the StoryMaps mobile app!

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This story includes several of the pieces you might use in your own story–like paragraphs, buttons, separators, and more. To get started, select a section of the styling panel and make some adjustments. As you adjust different elements, you’ll see this story adjust to demonstrate how they look. Try changing the paragraph font, and see what happens to this text.

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Welcome to a new era of digital storytelling

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The settings below will affect all stories, collections, and themes within your organization

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Every story has a place

Add context to your content easily with beautiful layouts and immersive experiences made in minutes. You can choose what to use from videos, images, audio clips and even embeds. StoryMaps comes equipped with everything you need to ensure your story looks great.

Interactive digital experiences

Transport your readers to any place at any time. With StoryMaps, you get access to the world’s leading mapping technology to guide your readers to your favorite places, illustrate trends or even take them on an interactive tour.

Whether you’re on the couch or at the beach, you can connect with other authors and explore new destinations through the StoryMaps mobile app

Great storytelling wherever you are

Add another dimension to your map tours for an extra storytelling punch

What it is, why you need it, and how to do it well

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Three different approaches to bundling related stories

What’s in a collection?

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Build a connection with your audience by making the personal universal

Maps are great, but interactive charts and tables can propel your story to new heights

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Learn to create a cohesive visual narrative using StoryMaps’ built-in filters

Interviewing story subjects can help add authority to a story. These tips will help you prep to get all the info you need.

Let’s go over copyright 101, public domain, Creative Commons, and more

Sharpen your storytelling skills with tips and tricks from the StoryMaps team

Telling a compelling story often starts with great writing, but it doesn’t stop there.

The StoryMaps builder has everything you need to help stage an event, large or small

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Find answers to questions like "what’s a story?" and "how do you tell one?"

Sound can add an effective and memorable dimension to your narrative

Maps add depth and context to multimedia storytelling

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Help is right up here

Continue storytelling with ArcGIS StoryMaps and keep your content. Request that Esri migrate your account to ArcGIS Online by May 31, 2025, and complete migration by June 30, 2025.

If you requested to migrate your account to ArcGIS Online, complete the migration process before June 30, 2025.

Learn more about the retirement and migration

StoryMaps.com is retiring. Request migration to ArcGIS Online by May 31, 2025.

StoryMaps.com is retiring on June 30, 2025. Complete migration to ArcGIS Online before the retirement date.

To complete the migration of your StoryMaps.com account to ArcGIS Online, review and accept the Esri Master Agreement and Privacy Policy before June 30, 2025. For more information on migrating to ArcGIS Online, visit the <link>StoryMaps.com retirement page</link>.

StoryMaps.com Retirement and Migration to ArcGIS Online

After one year, you will need to purchase an ArcGIS Online subscription to continue using ArcGIS StoryMaps. Check out the StoryMaps <link>retirement page</link> for more information on the ArcGIS Online subscription options.

ArcGIS <link>StoryMaps</link> is the professional version of StoryMaps and is available as part of <link2>ArcGIS Online</link2>. Both products share similar storytelling capabilities, so if you are familiar with StoryMaps, you'll feel right at home with ArcGIS StoryMaps. Visit the <link3>retirement page</link3> for a detailed comparison between StoryMaps and ArcGIS StoryMaps.

If you do not migrate your account to ArcGIS Online, you can save any content you would like to keep before the June 30, 2025, retirement date. The options for saving content include saving stories as a PDF and saving frames using a screen recording. 

Esri is retiring StoryMaps. On June 30, 2025, StoryMaps will go offline, and StoryMaps content will not be available to edit or view. For more information, please visit the <link>StoryMaps retirement page.</link>

Introducing ArcGIS StoryMaps and ArcGIS Online: <link>AGSM Introduction video</link>

You are invited to migrate your account and content to ArcGIS Online where you can continue storytelling with maps. With ArcGIS Online, you’ll get access to ArcGIS StoryMaps and the easy-to-use story builder you are familiar with, plus so much more!

If you migrate your account to ArcGIS Online, you will have access to your existing stories, collections, and themes via ArcGIS StoryMaps, as well as an array of additional ArcGIS capabilities. (Your frames will be migrated and accessible when support for frames is added to ArcGIS StoryMaps.)

For more details about migrating your account and content to ArcGIS Online, please visit the StoryMaps <link>retirement page.</link>

Click next to proceed with the migration or click cancel to close.

Esri will give you one year of access to ArcGIS Online at no extra cost and will migrate your account and content for you.

Please review the following points before you proceed with migrating your account to ArcGIS Online:

I accept and agree to be legally bound by

This means that you are deciding to use ArcGIS StoryMaps by converting your StoryMaps account to an ArcGIS Online account. After you accept these terms and conditions, select Migrate to ArcGIS Online, and you will be redirected to ArcGIS StoryMaps.

Review the Esri <link>Master Agreement</link> and <link2>Privacy Policy</link2>

To complete the migration of your StoryMaps account to ArcGIS Online, review and accept the Esri Master Agreement and Privacy Policy by June 30, 2025. 

Reminder of the retirement message, and reminder of the migration considerations. Hit the high points and link to the retirement page.

StoryMaps Retirement and Migration to ArcGIS Online

Both of these options include access to ArcGIS StoryMaps and the other ArcGIS Online apps and capabilities. Please note that there is a price difference between the two options that you will need to pay if you want to keep your account active when your free subscription expires. See the FAQs on the <link>StoryMaps.com retirement page</link> for more information about these subscription options.

Selecting Request migration below means that you are deciding to change your StoryMaps.com account to an ArcGIS Online subscription. During the free subscription, you will have access to your existing stories and collections via ArcGIS StoryMaps, as well as an array of additional capabilities offered by ArcGIS Online.

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