A coal seam fire or mine fire is the underground smouldering of a coal deposit, often a coal mine. Smouldering (or smoldering in American spelling is a Flameless form of Combustion, deriving its heat from oxidations occurring on the surface of a Coal mining is the extraction or removal of Coal from the Earth by Mining. Such fires have economic, social and ecological impact.

Coal fires can burn for very long periods of time (from months to centuries), until the seam in which they smoulder is exhausted. Smouldering (or smoldering in American spelling is a Flameless form of Combustion, deriving its heat from oxidations occurring on the surface of a They propagate in a creeping fashion along mines shafts and cracks. Because they are underground, they are extremely difficult and costly to reach and extinguish. There is a strong similarity between coal fires and peat fires. Peat is an accumulation of partially Decayed Vegetation matter.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Detection 3 Environmental impact 4 Extinguishing coal fires 5 List of mine fires 5.1 Australia 5.2 Germany 5.3 India 5.4 New Zealand 5.5 United States 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

Origins

Mine fires may begin as a result of an industrial accident, generally involving a gas explosion. Historically, some mine fires were started when bootleg mining was stopped by authorities, usually by blowing the mine up. Bootleg mining is illegal coal mining. The term originated around the 1920s though the practice probably predates that Many recent mine fires have started from people burning trash in a landfill that was in proximity to abandoned coal mines, including the much publicized Centralia, Pennsylvania fire, which has been burning since 1962. For other uses see Water treatment and Land reclamation. A landfill, also known as a dump (and historically as Centralia is a borough in Columbia County Pennsylvania, United States. Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Of the hundreds of mine fires in the United States burning today, most are found in the state of Pennsylvania. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern

Some fires along coal seams are natural occurrences. Some coals may self-ignite at temperatures as low as 40 °C (104 °F) in the right conditions of moisture and grain size. Spontaneous combustion is a type of Combustion which occurs without an external ignition source Wildfires (lightning-caused or others) can ignite the coal closer to the surface or entrance, and the smouldering fire can spread through the seam, creating subsidence that may open further seams to oxygen and spawn wildfires in future when the fire breaks to the surface. A wildfire, also known as a wildland fire, forest fire, brush fire, vegetation fire, grass fire, Peat fire, Smouldering (or smoldering in American spelling is a Flameless form of Combustion, deriving its heat from oxidations occurring on the surface of a Prehistoric clinker outcrops in the American West are the result of prehistoric coal fires that left a residue that resists erosion better than the matrix, leaving buttes and mesa. A butte (bjut is an isolated Hill with steep often vertical sides and a small flat top smaller than Mesas Plateaus and tables In some A mesa ( Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic for "table" is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs It is estimated that Australia's Burning Mountain, the oldest known coal fire, has burned for 6,000 years. Burning Mountain is a feature near Wingen, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 300km north of Sydney just off the New England ^[1]

Globally, thousands of inextinguishable mine fires are burning, especially in China and India, where poverty, lack of government regulations and runaway development combine to create an environmental disaster. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Modern strip mining exposes smoldering coal seams to the air, revitalizing the flames. Surface mining is a type of Mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit are removed

Rural Chinese in coal-bearing regions often dig coal for household use, abandoning the pits when they become unworkably deep, leaving highly combustible coal dust exposed to the air. Coal dust is a fine powdered form of Coal, which is created by the crushing grinding or pulverizing of coal Using satellite imagery to map China's coal fires resulted in the discovery of many previously unknown fires. Satellite imagery consists of photographs of Earth or other planets made by means of Artificial satellites. The oldest coal fire in China is in Baijigou and is said to have been burning since the Qing Dynasty. Not to be confused with Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China ^[2]

Detection

Infrared detecting equipment is able to track the fire's location as the fire heats the ground on all sides of it. ^[3]

Environmental impact

Besides destruction of the affected areas, coal fires emit gases that may contribute to global warming. Global warming is the increase in the average measured temperature of the China's coal fires, which consume an estimated 20 – 200 million tons of coal a year, make up as much as 1 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide ( Chemical formula:) is a Chemical compound composed of two Oxygen Atoms covalently bonded to a single Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fossil source Fuels that is Hydrocarbons found within the top layer of the Earth’s crust. ^[1]

Extinguishing coal fires

The task of extinguishing underground coal fires, sometimes exceeding temperatures of 540 °C (1,000 °F), is both highly dangerous and very expensive. ^[1]

In 2004, the Chinese government claimed success in extinguishing a mine fire at a colliery near Urumqi in China's Xinjiang province that had been burning since 1874. Coal mining is the extraction or removal of Coal from the Earth by Mining. Ürümchi or Ürümqi, sometimes spelled Wulumuqi (English uːˈruːmtʃi ئۈرۈمچی|Ürümchi) is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Xinjiang ( Uyghur: شىنجاڭ Shinjang;; Postal map spelling: Sinkiang; Turkish: Sincan, Sincan Uygur Özerk However, a March 2008 Time magazine article quotes researcher Steven Q. Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American Newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and Andrews as saying, "I decided go to see how it was extinguished, and flames were visible and the entire thing was still burning. . . . They said it was put out, and who is to say otherwise?"^[4]

List of mine fires

Australia

• Burning Mountain

Germany

• Brennender Berg [de]

India

• Jharia, Dhanbad district, Jharkand

New Zealand

• Burnett's Face, West Coast
• Strongman Mine, West Coast [1]
• Wangaloa, Otago [2]

United States

• Centralia, Pennsylvania
• Carbondale, Pennsylvania
• Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania
• Laurel Run, Pennsylvania^[5]
• New Castle, Colorado
• New Straitsville, Ohio
• San Toy, Ohio

See also

• Darvaza (also known as "Gates of Hell"), a location in Turkmenistan with natural gas deposit set on fire

References

Further reading

• Kuenzer, C. ; Zhang, J. ; Tetzlaff, A. ; van Dijk, P. ; Voigt, S. ; Mehl, H. ; Wagner, W. (2007). "Uncontrolled coal fires and their environmental impacts: Investigating two arid mining regions in north-central China". Applied Geography 27: 42-62. doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2006.09.007. A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document.  
• "Satellites track the fires raging beneath India", New Scientist, 2006-07-18, pp. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 390 BC - Roman - Gaulish Wars Battle of the Allia - a Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls,  25ff. Retrieved on 2007-01-16. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate.  

External links

• Encyclopedia of Earth: Coal fires
• "Coal fires - A natural or man made hazard?" (site about coal mine fires from Anupma Prakash, of the Univ. of Alaska-Fairbanks)
• Centralia, Pennsylvania Mine fire
• Centralia Mine Fire (from roadsideamerica. com)
• Welcome to Centralia

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