Coal: Encyclopedia II - Coal - Coal fires

Coal - Coal fires

There are hundreds of coal fires burning around the world.^[8] Those burning underground can be difficult to locate and many can not be extinguished. Fires can cause the ground above to subside, combustion gases are dangerous to life, and breaking out to the surface can initiate surface wildfires.

Coal seams can be set on fire by spontaneous combustion or contact with a mine fire or surface fire. A grass fire in a coal area can set dozens of coal seams on fire.^{[9] [10]} Coal fires in China burn 120 million tons of coal a year, emitting 360 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. This amounts to 2-3% of the annual worldwide production of CO₂ from fossil fuels, or as much as emitted from all of the cars and light trucks in the United States. ^{[11] [12]}

In the United States , a trash fire was lit in the borough landfill located in an abandoned Anthracite strip mine pit in the portion of the Coal Region called Centralia, Pennsylvania from 1962. It burns underground today, 44 years later.

The reddish siltstone rock that caps many ridges and buttes in the Powder River Basin (Wyoming), and in western North Dakota is called porcelanite, which also may resemble the coal burning waste "clinker" or volcanic "scoria." ^[13] Clinker is rock that has been fused by the natural burning of coal. In the case of the Powder River Basin approximately 27 to 54 billion metric tons of coal burned within the past three million years. ^[14] Wild coal fires in the area were reported by the Lewis and Clark expedition as well as explorers and settlers in the area. ^[15]

The Australian Burning Mountain was originally believed to be a volcano, but the smoke and ash comes from a coal fire which may have been burning for 5,000 years.^[16]

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Coal fires", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki