Oil gusher at Potrero, Mexico, 15 March 1911.

MEXICO : A gusher is an oil well from which the oil flows out under pressure without needing to be pumped. The amount of oil ejected can be prodigious; the Lakeview No 1 gusher in California flowed continuously for 18 months beginning, producing an estimated 8.2 million barrels of crude oil. Mexico has very extensive oil reserves. Initially these resources were exploited by British and American oil companies, but in 1938 the Government of Lazaro Cardenas nationalised the Mexican oil industry. Photograph taken from the Pearson Archives at the Science Museum, London. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)