Centralia Mine Fire
Coal seam fires are generally scary. These fires usually start in coal mines, and then they can spread to the forests, causing disasters. The trick is that even after the surface fires are extinguished, they continue to smoulder underground. This means that they can flare up and restart forest fires.
But there's a particular coal seam fire which seems the scariest of all. The fire burning underneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States started over 50 years ago, in May 1962.
Illustration: Off Roaders
The fire burns in underground coal mines at depths of up to 300 feet over an eight-mile stretch of 3,700 acres. If you go there, you can feel the heat from the ground on your feet, because the fire burns to this day. Studies suggest that it could keep burning for another 250 years. The town has been since evacuated, and less than 10 people live there today.
The Mariana Trench
Another scary place from deep underground. However, this time it's not about fire, but water. If the idea of being all alone on top of Mount Everest which is 8848 meters high isn't giving you enough chills, get ready for a reverse situation: the Mariana Trench is the deepest known part of the world's oceans and it reaches the depth of 10911 metres. And since only 10% of ocean depths have been mapped, it's highly likely that there are even deeper parts of the sea.
Illustration: Travel, All Women's Talk
It's located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands. The trench is about 2,550 kilometres long but has an average width of only 69 kilometres.
The deepest part of it is called Challenger Deep and four descents were achieved. The first manned descent was by bathyscaphe Trieste which was sent to the bottom in January 1960.
Enjoy the creepy gallery of alien-like creatures living down there.
Illustration: I Like To Waste My Time
Snake Island
Going through field with high grass knowing that there might be venomous snakes out there who could bite you any time is scary enough. Having to run through a jungle full of snakes you can see hissing at you is a whole other level of horror.
Illustration: Prefeitura Municipal Itanhaém
In the picture above, you can see Ilha de Queimada Grande off the coast of São Paulo, Brazil, your typical island. Except there are snakes. Everywhere. And not just any snakes - one of the world's most venomous species, Golden Lanchehead Vipers, are unique to the island. The venom causes your flesh to rot off your bones.
There are about 4 to 5 snakes per square meter of the island, which means that no matter where you stand on the island, there will be a Golden Lanchehead Viper just a few meters away from you.
Illustration: Otavio Marques (Instituto Butantan), canalAberto - Wikipedia
If you take a closer look at the picture of the island, you will see an abandoned lighthouse. That's where one family lived, but they didn't survive for long. After someone left a window open during the night, snakes crawled inside. Panicking, they ran outside into the jungle hoping to reach their boat and escape, but they were confronted with thousands of more vipers, and were bitten numerous times running through the forest by snakes hanging overhead by branches. They all died before they reached their boat, and their bodies were found scattered throughout the forest later by a navy vessel making a routine supply stop.
There was also an attempt to build a banana plantation on the island, but that also quickly ended in a disaster as workers were dying from the vipers. The island is now forbidden to civilians by the Brazilian navy.
The Suicide Forest
At the northwest base of Mount Fuji in Japan, there's a forest named Aokigahara, which literally translates to Forest of Green Trees. But don't let its innocent name fool you: it's much more famous by its nickname, The Suicide Forest.
Illustration: Aokigahara Jukai (Forest of Suicides), Japan; Simon - Flickr
Aokigahara is the most popular place for suicides. In 2003, 105 bodies were found in the forest, exceeding the previous record of 78 in 2002, and in 2004, 108 people decided to end their lives in the forest. In 2010, 247 people attempted suicide there, 54 of whom completed the act.
Number of suicides increases during March, the end of the fiscal year in Japan. As of 2011, the most common means of suicide in the forest were hanging and drug overdoses.
Illustration: Histories Of Things To Come
"Life is a precious gift we receive from our parents. Think once more about your parents, your siblings and your children. You do not have to suffer alone. Please talk with someone."
Since the trees are so dense that they block the wind, and that there is almost no wildlife, Aokigahara is known for being extremely quiet. It has a historic association with demons in Japanese mythology.
According to the legend, in times when there was not enough food for everyone, families abandoned people in the forest. By sacrificing family members, a family would be able to survive longer as there would be less mouth to feed. Those abandoned in the forest would die long and horrible deaths due to starvation. The legend has it that Aokigahara is haunted by the souls of the abandoned ones.
Bolton Strid
Illustration: Toque
Wondering what's this small stream doing here? Well, first, it's not just a stream, but a river. Second, it's turned sideways.
And third, people who fall in - die.
Few kilometres upstream and downstream it's your usual 9-meter-wide river, but then it turns into a deadly beast at the point known as Bolton Strid, where it's only less than two meters wide, which means that all that water is now below it.
One of the reasons for its deadliness are extremely strong undercurrents. And once the river pulls you in, there are weird, sharp pockets and little chambers down there which can be seen during a drought. Because of this, it's actually impossible to measure how deep it goes.
Illustration: Cracked
Nobody who accidentally falls in the Strid survives. There are numerous signs about how dangerous the innocent-looking river is, but they're not always seen. People simply assume that they can jump the creek or walk over it with some help of a few stones which look stable enough. That's exactly why Strid is so horrifying: you would never guess what it actually is.
When people go missing near the Strid, bodies are rarely found. The underwater caves are probably full of corpses.
Poveglia Island
And here it is. The most horrifying place on the Earth. An Italian island which might as well be Hell on Earth. The island is so full of terror and horror that it doesn't even attempt to hide it.
Ancient Romans used Poveglia Island to quarantine people who were affected by bubonic plague and many people spent their last days on the Island. The next time an epidemic came along, the very same island was used to dump dead bodies in order to stop epidemic from spreading. So many people died there that the soil was 50% human ash. (These are medieval estimates and might not be correct.)
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Illustraion: Huffington Post
In the 1920s an asylum was opened on the island. Patients reported seeing paranormal activity but nobody took them seriously. Even a surgeon working in the facility couldn't handle the place. The more time he spent on the island, the more insane he was, claiming that he could hear whispers when nobody was around. He performed series of horrible experiments on his patients and brutally mistreated them. He attempted a suicide by jumping off the bell tower, but he survived. He claimed that he was possessed by an angry spirit, and soon after he was murdered under unexplained circumstances.
Illustraion: Spooky Scary - Tumblr
As it usually goes with these kinds of places, there are rumors that it's haunted by the spirits of people who were either left to die there or died in the hands of the crazy doctor, mostly because of the weird loud noises out of nowhere which can sometimes be heard coming from the island.
These are, however, (probably) because of the fact the place is structurally unsafe, which is why Italian government prohibits visiting the island. Fishermen rarely go near it because human bones from the burial pits are always caught in their fishing nets.
References
Centralia Mine Fire: Sources 1, Illustrations 1; The Mariana Trench: Sources 1, Illustrations 1 2; Snake Island: Sources 1 2, Illustrations 1 2; Suicide Forest: Sources 1 2 Illustrations 1 2; River Wharfe: Sources 1 2, Illustrations 1 2; Poveglia Island: Sources 1, Illustrations 1 2.
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