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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for April 13, 1999
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What fire has burned for 2,000 years?
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The oldest known continuously burning fire is an underground coal fire
in New South Wales, Australia. This fire apparently started over
2,000 years ago when lightning struck a large coal seam at a point
where it reached the surface of the earth. Today the fire is more
than 500 feet (152 meters) underground, and is still slowly eating
away at the coal
There are also long-burning coal fires in the eastern USA and in
China. These fires were started by lightning or by accidents in coal
mines. Some towns have been evacuated because of the danger of
collapse as the underground coal seams slowly burn away.
Underground coal fires are almost impossible to put out. They burn
very slowly, using up the scant oxygen in the depths, but not going
out because they stay very hot. Despite their slow burn rates,
underground coal fires are so extensive that they are estimated to
produce 2-3% of the world's carbon dioxide output.
Underground fires are a problem for miners, and an environmental risk:
http://www.penweb.org/issues/mining/tribrev/swfires.html
http://www.penweb.org/issues/mining/tribrev/centralia.html
http://www.itc.nl/~coalfire/
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