This town has been burning for 50 years

[mfcorey1]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-town-has-been-burning-for-50-years/ar-AAcVVsx?ocid=mailsignout

In what seems like the plot to disaster movie, the quiet town of Centralia, Pennsylvania has endured a burning problem since 1962: It's been on fire, literally, for the past 53 years.

And how this fire started still remains a mystery. But chemistry can help explain why it's still going.

The problem runs deep
Centralia, Pennsylvania sits atop a few of the biggest coal deposits in the world. This was fortuitous for the sleepy town at the time because coal was — and still is — one of the main sources of energy and electricity, having fueled the Industrial Revolution.

In the 1800s, miners in Centralia blasted tunnels underground to harvest the coal, but by the mid-1900s, many of the mines wsere abandoned.

No one knows exactly how the Centralia fire started, but the strongest theory is that burning trash from a nearby landfill accidentally ignited coal below an old entrance to the mine. The fire then spread through the mines

Feeding the flames
Coal is formed over millions of years when swamps and bogs full of organic matter like trees, roots, and bacteria are buried under sand, mud, and other natural materials. The pressure on the organic matter increases as layers of earth above it grow over time, and all of the water and other substances from the buried plants and trees get squeezed out, forming coal that ends up being mostly carbon — about 40-90% carbon by weight.

When the carbon inside coal mixes with oxygen, it ignites. It can even begin spontaneously without a flame nearby.

Those tunnels that the miners dug in the 1800s fed the flames by siphoning in oxygen from the surface. Then, as more coal burned, the flames bit deeper and deeper into the surrounding region — a whopping 300-feet-deep — in a vicious, fiery cycle that wouldn't stop.

Coal burns slow and steady, which means that it takes a very long time to burn out. This is unlike timber in a forest or a camp fire, which smolders quickly.

As long as there's enough heat, fuel, and oxygen to keep it going, the fire won't burn out. Because coal contains a natural source of fuel — carbon — it can keep burning for as long as there's enough heat and oxygen to keep it going. This is why coal mine fires can blaze for centuries.

Today, the Centralia fire covers six square miles and spreads 75 feet per year. Shockingly, it could burn for another 250 years.

[Suich]

1. I've read about this place.

It's a fascinating story.

[tymorial]

2. As soon as I saw your headline

I knew you would be talking about Centralia. Crazy story.

[gratuitous]

3. Someone go look for me

But I have a sneaking suspicion this story on MSN will have several comments that are variations on "Thanks, Obama!"

[DawgHouse]

4. I saw this on a news show several years ago

20-20, Dateline... not sure which show but it is incredible.

[redwitch]

5. Drove through Centralia once, late 80's

It was dusk, incredibly eerie, smoke rising from the ground all over. Abandoned homes. And the occasional occupied home which was the eeriest part about it.

[lostnfound]

6. Omg. I remember learning about it when I was in HIGH SCHOOL.

Like...in the 70s.

[KG]

7. New Straitsville Mine Fire

http://www.ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/archives/216

The New Straitsville mine fires are said to have started November 13, 1884, when striking miners pushed burning cars into a mine, during a strike over wages between the New Straitsville Mining Company’s management and mine workers. A small group of union members decided to sabotage the mines. Cars filled with oil-soaked timber were set on fire and were pushed into a mine owned by the New Straitsville Mining Company. The fire quickly spread to the coal seam underground.

[Recursion]

8. Basis of Silent Hill, IIRC

Crazy story

[AwakeAtLast]

9. I was just there last week

There are only a few houses left, but they are occupied. The streets are no longer being maintained, just the highway. Trees are starting to take over.

I haven't seen active smoke for several years, the last time was about 11 years ago. I read an article in Ashland (what a name, right?), a town nearby, that basically said they were thinking it was burning out or at least slowing down.

In the same article, it said they realized there was a problem when they noticed that the snow was melting off all of the roofs of the houses in the town.

It is an eerie place, to be sure.