GC1EGBD Underground Fires
Type: Earth | Size: Other | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: AD0OR @ | Hide Date: 07/24/2008 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 33.622 W107° 24.501 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0

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Underground Fires

Underground fires? I didn't think it was possible, but I as earthcaches are supposed to help us do, I learned a lot about it after visiting this site.

A coal seam fire or mine fire is the underground smoldering of a coal deposit, often a coal mine. 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. 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.

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. 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. Of the hundreds of mine fires in the United States burning today, most are found in the state of Pennsylvania.

Some fires along coal seams are natural occurrences. Some coals may self-ignite at temperatures as low as 104°F in the right conditions of moisture and grain size. 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 future wildfires when the fire breaks to the surface. 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. It is estimated that Australia's Burning Mountain, the oldest known coal fire, has burned for 6,000 years.

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. Modern strip mining exposes smoldering coal seams to the air, revitalizing the flames.

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Logging requirements :

• (optional)Post a photo of yourself aith your GPS at the site.

Tell us :

• When the mines closed here because of fires
• What some of the effects were
• What signs can you see of mining in this area or of the fires?
• How is an underground fire dangerous to us?

06/23/2019 By Candyce54
Unfortunately no sign and no info here. Posting picture of site. Will do some research to see if I can find answers. Great road trip with muggle husband and Geodog Bella. We like to cover virtuals and Earthcaches along with high fav points along the way. Many states, many caches. All wonderful to see

06/19/2019 By HikingSeal
I have been to Australia’s Burning Mountain. It’s like a scene from a fantasy movie about dragons as smoked leaks from a crack on the earth.

When I saw this earthcache I was hoping for a similar experience. With the sign missing. It’s hard to answer questions or find the fire. I wandered up the trail a bit to see if I could spot anything. No luck.

I’m sure I knew it at the time. I did not remember that Burning mountain is the longest burning coal seam fire. Thanks for reminding me.

Logged from Cachly
UTAG Member
Utah GeoTour Volunteer
Podcacher Club Member
Cachetur.no Ambassador and Contributor

06/17/2019 By djkfisher
Traveling from Grand Junction to Colorado Springs. Posting photo and will send information when I get to my hotel. The information sign is missing so we will need to do some googling to find all the answers.

Did the googling and sent the answers to the ECO. Fascinating history in this part of Colorado. Thank you for the stop in our journey.

05/04/2019 By Trea
Huff-Suter and I are on a week-long caching trip. We are trying to find as many virtual, ECs and challenges as time allows. I am enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Thanks so much for this EC; Huff-Suter has submitted our answers.

05/04/2019 By Huff-Suter
Sign was missing but we will send in answers for all we can. I read alot about this before I headed out on the trip so thanks for the lessons.

08/13/2018 By fiercetara
Tftc

07/16/2018 By tc54915
Caching in Colorado and Utah with AJPerla for a week. Plan is for oldies, virtuals, and counties and webcams if in the area. Temps in the 80-90s while we were there. TFTC and the beautiful scenery.

07/16/2018 By AJperla
Tftc with tc

06/11/2018 By Marcandkate
Nice to make a quick stop here on the way west. Very interesting Earthcache. Answers sent. TFTEC!

06/08/2018 By Btbayne
This is day 15 of our 3 week geo road trip. Today we traveled from Silt CO to Estes Park. We are enjoying the sites along the may and doing some caching. Thanks for sharing this site.