The world is on fire and not just from forest fires or volcanoes. Across the globe hundreds of fires burn low and slow on dirty fuel beneath the earth, smouldering for decades or even centuries. 1
Underground coal fires are centuries old infernos that issue thick billows of ash and smoke, and generate sinkholes that consume roads and homes without warning.
Most folks simply aren't aware of coal mine fires. Scrapping all the cars, SUVs, minivans, and pickup trucks in America could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 2%. Extinguishing the fires that burn unchecked at coal deposits around the world could reduce emissions by 2 to 3% without the economic devastation. 2
Coal mine fires are underground smouldering of coal mines which can burn for very long periods of time until the seam in which they smoulder is exhausted. They propagate in a creeping fashion along mine shafts. Because they are underground, they are extremely difficult and costly to reach and put out.
An underground coal bed can ignite from a lightning strike, wildfire, or a mere jostling of the topsoil, enough to permit a steady stream of oxygen to reach the rocky fuel below. Oxygen is a highly reactive element, and will oxidize the coal, pilfering electrons and spurring a release of heat. When a fire starts it can endure for a very long time. 3
The ash and fumes that coal fires spew contain toxins and poisonous gases, including mercury, lead, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, contaminating the air, water, and soil and causing diseases in the area's residents. Coal fires also pump out carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.4
Thousands of coal fires are reported to be burning in at least 22 countries on every continent except Antarctica. The United States has 112 documented underground fires, along with many more not yet known or counted. In addition to underground fires, there are also 93 known surface coal fires, some of them in huge coal waste piles created during the process of coal mining. 5
Pennsylvania isn't alone. The US harbors hundreds of blazes from Alaska to Alabama
Pennsylvania has over 250,000 acres of abandoned mine lands and has 1/3 of the nation's mine problems. There are over 45 mine fires burning across the state, the most famous being the Centralia mine fire in the Centralia mine in the hard coal region of Columbia County, which has been burning since 1962. A fire at a landfill in the borough of roughly 1,500 residents somehow triggered a blaze in the coal beds present in the abandoned mines hundreds of feet below the surface. It has since spread over a wide area, opening sinkholes, creating fissures, and causing ominous smoke to rise from the ground in several locations. Centralia was gradually abandoned over the ensuring decades.
Pennsylvania isn't alone. The US harbors hundreds of blazes from Alaska to Alabama. Near Glenwood Springs, Colorado an old coal mine has burned for the past 100 years. In the summer of 2002, the blaze ignited a forest fire that consumed 12,000 acres and 43 buildings. Putting it out cost $6.5 million. And the mine still burns. It was also responsible for the infamous 1994 Storm King Mountain fire that killed 14 firefighters.
A coal seam fire burning in southwestern Colorado grabbed national attention in October 2019 when US Forest Service rangers discovered it had ignited a full previously. It turns out it's a pretty ordinary occurrence in Colorado and other mineral rich western states. All of them have a handful of regularly burning coal seam fires at any given time. Colorado has more than three dozen coal fires burning deep underground in abandoned mines, largely out of site. The underground fires are such a regular part of the Colorado's landscape that the Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety officials have even estimated their carbon footprint. Greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be about the same as 25,000 vehicles driving 10,000 miles per year. Methane emissions are about 2,800 tons per year. 6
China has the world's worse coal fires. Hundreds of fires proliferate the nearly 3,000 mile coal belt running across north China. Some in China have been burning naturally for thousands of years, but others are being set alight by small-scale mining operations seeking to cash in on soaring coal prices. Together, these perpetual fires are letting off a total amount of carbon dioxide each year equal to all the cars in the USA. 7
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A coal seam about 140 miles north of Sydney, Australia, has been burning by some estimates for 500,000 years
China's coal fires make up as much as 1 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. In China, estimates of the amount of coal consumed or made inaccessible by uncontrolled fires runs as high as 200 million metric tons per year, 10 percent of the country's total coal production. 8
Indonesia, a major exporter of coal in the Pacific Rim, has many thousands of coal fires. In eastern Borneo the number might be as high as 3,000 but researchers think this estimate is far too low. The real number is so astronomical that no one would believe it. The published numbers are about one percent of what could actually exist say some researchers. 9
A coal seam about 140 miles north of Sydney, Australia, has been burning by some estimates for 500,000 years. (10) Mount Wingen in New South Wales, Australia is commonly known as Burning Mountain, partly for the red regolith that colors its summit, but primarily because an actual fire smolders one hundred feet below its surface, and has done so for at least 6,000 years. This is the oldest nown natural coal fire. 3
Fighting the fires- Michael Woods notes, “Mine fires are frustratingly difficult and costly to extinguish. Weapons range from backfilling mine shafts to cutting off the oxygen supply with new foam-like grout that's squirted into mine shafts like shaving cream and then expands to snuff out the fire. Most are simply left alone to burn until they eventually exhaust their fuel supply.” 11)
Turkmenistan- Gates of Hell
Although not a coal mine fire, a gaping hole in the desert in Turkmenistan has been burning nonstop since 1971.
The Gates of Hell, also known as the Darvaza gas crater, measures roughly 230 feet wide and at least 65 feet deep. Evacuation of the hole began in 1971 during a Soviet drilling operation. Disaster struck when the ground beneath the drill collapsed, and the rig plunged into a natural gas cavern. As noxious methane gas leaked into the air, geologists decided to set the crater on fire, estimating that the gas within would only burn for a few weeks. Fifty years later, the Gates of Hell are still blaze, and have even become one of Turkmenistan's top tourist attractions. Turkmenistan's President has decided to quell the Gates of Hell. This was tried in 2010 but was unsuccessful. Lots of luck this time. 12
References
Thailynn Munroe, “Embers under the earth: the surprising world of coal seam fires,” globalforestwatch.org, January 30, 2019
Glenn B. Stracher, “Coal fires: a burning global recipe for catastrophe,” Geotimes, October 2002
Ross Pomeroy, “The underground fires that can burn for thousands of years,” realclearscience.com, April 16, 2020
Audrey Wozniak, “The world's longest burning fires: China's unseen story,” chinadialogue.net, August 19, 2013
“Coal fires,” gem.wiki, April 29, 2021
Grace Hood, “Underground coal seams can spontaneously combust and burn for decades. Here's how officials keep Colorado's 38 fires under control,” cpr.org, November 2, 2019
Susan Watts, “A coal dependent future,” BBC News, March 9, 2005
Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.
