Underground Fires (Coal Seam Fires; Etc.)

[EnolaGaia]

The Burning Mountain coal seam fire is claimed to be the oldest subterranean fire in the world.

This Mysterious Fire in Australia Has Been Burning For at Least 6,000 Years

In a national park a four-hour drive north of Sydney in Australia, a fire is smoldering out of control – and it's been doing so for at least 6,000 years.

Known as 'Burning Mountain', the mysterious underground blaze is the oldest known fire on the planet. And some scientists estimate it may be far more ancient than we currently think.

Located under Mount Wingen in the state of New South Wales (Wingen means 'fire' in the language of the local Wanaruah people, the traditional custodians of the land), this underground smolder is a coal seam fire – one of thousands burning at any one time around the globe.

Once ignited, these subterranean fires are almost impossible to put out. ...

"No one knows the size of the fire under Burning Mountain, you can only infer it," Guillermo Rein, a professor of fire science at Imperial College London in the UK, tells ScienceAlert.

"It's likely a ball of around 5 to 10 meters in diameter, reaching temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius [1,832 Fahrenheit]," he explains. ...

The fire at Mount Wingen is currently burning around 30 meters underground, and moving south at a speed of around 1 meter (3.2 ft) per year. ...

Interestingly, no one's sure what first ignited it.

The first documented European sighting was in 1828, when a local farmhand declared he'd discovered a volcano in the Mount Wingen region.

Only a year later in 1829, geologist Reverend CPN Wilton concluded the alleged volcano was actually a coal seam fire. Measurements have since shown that the path of the fire covers around 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) – suggesting it's been alight for at least 6,000 years. But other than that, hardly any official research has been done on the area. ...

"It's not just that it's 6,000 years old… it's at least 6,000 years old," says Rein. "It could actually be hundreds of thousands of years old."

It's worth noting this evidence is unpublished and not peer-reviewed so needs to be taken with a grain of salt. But it only adds to the mystery of this understudied fire. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/this-m...een-burning-non-stop-for-at-least-6-000-years

 

[BlackPeter]

A village local to me (Oakthorpe) set on fire a few years ago (1985) when a coal seam a few feet below ground somehow caught fire (believed to be spontaneous combustion)and smoke started coming out of the ground all over the village
"The old saying “there’s no smoke without fire” proved to be the case at the north-west Leicestershire village of Oakthorpe in 1985.
It started with cracks that opened up in the ground. Then wisps of smoke rose from the bowels of the earth itself and hung in the air like fog on an autumn morning.

The headlines in the national newspapers called it “The Day The Earth Caught Fire”.

And, for once, they weren’t far wrong. The earth had caught fire.

A blaze was raging through a seam of coal, seemingly unstoppable and spreading fast.

Underground and hard to tackle, it threatened to burn its way below the village, taking in its wake homes, a pub and even the road."
from local(ish) newspaper Leicester Mercury

 

[Analogue Boy]

There was an underground coal fire in Gateshead a while ago that’s probably still going.

Gateshead underground fire 'could burn for several years'​

An underground fire in a disused mine which has been burning for five years could continue for "several" more, Gateshead Council has warned.
Firefighters were called to the site on Keelman's Way, near Ryton Golf Club, in 2015 after reports of smouldering.
It is thought the source was two former ponds filled with spoil and aggregates at the Clare Vale mine workings.
It was made safe and the council and the fire service say they are confident there is no risk to the community.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service reported that it is understood that the Coal Authority previously offered its expertise, but because the burning material is "historic landfill" and not a coal tip, or colliery spoil, the organisation is not responsible for it.

The North East, as you’d expect is riddled with old coal seams and after the pits were decommissioned, new estates sprang up all over the place. Many of the local old timers were unsure of the wisdom of building over the old workings.

 

[EnolaGaia]

"The old saying “there’s no smoke without fire” proved to be the case at the north-west Leicestershire village of Oakthorpe in 1985.
It started with cracks that opened up in the ground. Then wisps of smoke rose from the bowels of the earth itself and hung in the air like fog on an autumn morning.
... from local(ish) newspaper Leicester Mercury

The full article (with photos) is archived and can be accessed at:

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/history/day-earth-caught-fire-underneath-1654401

 

[EnolaGaia]

A ... coal seam a few feet below ground somehow caught fire (believed to be spontaneous combustion)and smoke started coming out of the ground all over the village ...

Coal masses can self-heat to a point within the range at which they can ignite.

The ignition temperature for coal, which depends on several factors such as coal rank, volatile matter content and particle size, varies between 160 and 685 °C for most coals. Under adiabatic conditions, the minimum temperature at which a coal will self-heat is 35–140°C (Smith and Lazarra, 1987). In a large-scale study, 13 tons of high-volatile C bituminous coal was placed in a packed bed to simulate conditions in a mine gob area (Smith et al., 1991). The temperature in the bed increased from 35 to 340°C. ... In addition to the reactivity of the coal, spontaneous combustion was also dependent on particle size, freshness of the coal surface, heat of wetting, and availability of oxygen.

United States Bureau of Mines
Ann G. Kim, in Coal and Peat Fires: A Global Perspective, 2011.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/spontaneous-combustion

 

[Sharon Hill]

Coal that contains a lot of pyrite, when exposed to moisture and air, causes pyrite oxidation - the chemical reaction gives off heat that can contribute to spontaneous combustion (as well as sulfuric acid and other nasty things).

 

[TheLeeds]

Given a similar situation, would you choose to stay?
- if so, why?

I'd stay. Because it would be cheaper than paying for central heating.

 

[Beresford]

There's a fire emanating from a disused coal mine not too far from me. That area has a fair number of old mine workings, along with some ghost villages.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/mysterious-lava-like-field-burning-26012539

 

[Frideswide]

There's a fire emanating from a disused coal mine not too far from me. That area has a fair number of old mine workings, along with some ghost villages.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/mysterious-lava-like-field-burning-26012539

from the Record report

He added: “If you were to fall into that there would be nothing left of you.

anyone need to dispose of something urgently and discreetly????

 

[Analogue Boy]

from the Record report



anyone need to dispose of something urgently and discreetly????

Possibly the worst shot video of all time. Choosing a portrait aspect ratio and then trying for landscape.