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A view of the closed, damaged section of PA 61 south of Centralia. (Wikimedia Commons)
The ground underneath the small former mining town of Centralia, in Pennsylvania, has been on fire since 1962, when a coal seam running into a mine shaft set on fire. It hasn’t stopped ever since.
While no one is sure how underground coal began burning, The Washington Post interviewed experts who say it will probably keep burning for another 250 years.
According to engineers, the only way to stop the fire is to dig the entire 3,000 acres (1215 ha) of coal field under the ghost town and surrounding area, which would cost about $600 million.
Image courtesy of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
Centralia was once a prosperous coal mining town with a population estimated in 1,100 people. It had four movie theatres, seven bars, a school and a gas station.
Today, even the US postal service has scratched the town’s zip code from its system, and it is no longer printed on most modern maps.
Here’s the American Chemical Society’s Reactions latest video explaining why coal mines have a tendency to burn:
3 Comments
phil
It took 50 years and an open crack under the yukon river to put out Tantalus Butte coal mine’s fire
freshair
Another example of the ongoing damage from coal. This is a major contribution to global warming and air pollution. The combustion of coal not only contaminates the air, but water resources have more mercury, arsenic and cadmium due to coal-fired utilities. What are we doing as a nation? Coal operators need to be told “NO” and the needs of citizens “YES” by our elected legislators.
CoalMiner/Geologist/CheapEngy!
So what about emissions from a volcanic eruption???? I guess coal mines cause these as well.
Cheap energy, made expensive by regulation. Get ready for COSTLY $$$$$ Electric Bills folks.
Pollution from mining is being cleaned up in various parts of the US currently and progress is being made. This isn’t 1970 anymore. However, you do not eradicate the major power source from the Grid! We have by far the most coal reserves of any country in the world. As coal fired power plants continue to be taken off line at a plummeting rate, driven by bogus emission regulations, I expect multiple black outs in the short term. TX already buys power from Mexico as needed. We’d rather sell coal to Mexico, let them burn it, with literally no emissions regulations by the way, and then buy it back just to keep up with demand for electricity. Man-made climate change, the largest scam in the history of the world. And the joke’s on all of us!
I thinks it’s really cool this town’s on fire, by the way. I’m a geologist