Fires that keep on Burning

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Coal is a traditional fuel, which easily burns.  The problem is it doesn't always wait until it's in the fireplace to perform.  Coal is vulnerable to igniting while still underground.  In many parts of the world whole coal seams continue to fuel unseen fires.

Once the underground coal ignites, the temperature increases rapidly until it reaches a flash point, where the whole coal seam catches fire.  Once burning, a coal seam can keep setting nearby seams alight, in a process that may continue for hundreds of years.

It's thought that a place called Burning Mountain in New South Wales, Australia, has been burning for thousands of years.  In Centralia, Pennsylvania a fire started when a garbage dump ignited over an open pit coal mine.  All attempts to dig control trenches, or block off the oxygen failed to put out the fire.  The fire raged underground for over forty years before the town finally was abandoned.

Among the many worrisome aspects of these underground coal fires is their effect on global warming.  It's estimated that underground coal fires send as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as all the vehicles in North America.  Fortunately new heat sensing satellites can now monitor underground fires, so that new ones can be spotted before they become uncontrollable.

So next time, keep that fire above ground, where it can be controlled.