Long term fire. It turns out there are many very long lasting fires. I became interested in the way fire moves underground back in 02000 when I saw parts of the Long Now property on fire, and the fire was spreading through the root systems of trees. Every 5 minutes or so a tree would just appear to spontaneously combust. That fire eventually blew up in near nuclear proportions (mushroom cloud and everything) and tragically took out a swath of the ancient bristlecones.
Since then I have noted several long term and underground fires (which also produce massive amount of global CO2). The one pictured above from Uzbekistan is one of the more photogenic. I will keep the list below updated as I find more (like I do with the Underground Wonders post), so feel free to make notes of ones you know about in the comments and they will be added.
- Mt Wingen Australia underground coal fire first noted by westerners around 01828, but it is predicted that it has been burning for over 6000 years.
- “Fossil Reactors” are naturally occurring underground fission reactions in Uranium deposits of Oklo Africa, estimated at around 1.7 billion years old.
- “Door to Hell” (pictured above) Near Darvaz in Uzbekistan, burning since ~01972
- Coal mine seam fires, some of these have been burning since the Qing dynasty in China, and the Centralia PA fire has been burning since 01961.
- Some tire fires have lasted several years
