Earth's Oldest Burning Fire

bycosmicradio

5.9K followers

7 years ago

There is a fire beneath a mountain in Australia that has been burning for 6,000 years!

(Since 4,000 BC)

There is a fire beneath a mountain in Australia that has been burning for 6,000 years!

(Since 4,000 BC)

There's a similar coal seam gas fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, but it has been burning for only 53 years.

The horror movie, "Silent Hill" was based upon that town.

The Australian fire, located 30 meters below Mount Wingen (also known as "Burning Mountain"), is located in New South Wales, about 139 miles north of Sydney.

It is the oldest continuously burning fire on our planet.

According to stories passed down by traditional Wanaruah people, the fire has been used for thousands of years for "warmth, cooking, and toolmaking."

Although the area is a tourist attraction, coal seam fires are fairly common, with about a thousand burning around our planet!

Guillermo Rein, an expert on subterranean fires at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, explains about the persistence of such fires: "Smoldering fires, the slow, low-temperature, flameless form of combustion...are particularly difficult to extinguish despite extensive rains, weather changes, or firefighting attempts, and can persist for long periods of time (months, years)...Indeed, smoldering fires are the longest continuously burning fires on Earth."

(Science Alert, New York Times)

Let your passion burn, for it is through that passion that you will find success.