The Smoldering Ruins of Centralia(very interesting story)

damninteresting.com ^

[MeanWestTexan]

Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material

I deal with it all day long in the oil business --- lots of strata underground are unhealthily radioactive, and mining drilling can be cause some serious surprises, especially if enclosed (radon) etc.

Coal has a fair number of carbon and other isotopes in it that are released when burned.

Modern scrubbers catch 99 44/100% though, so it really is not a big concern, assumig a dumb arse isn't running the show.

[JimRed]

So, why have they not made a firebreak by excavating a section of the coal seam beyond the burning part, so it uses all the fuel and dies out? It works with forest fires.

Digging out the burning coal seems ineffective and dangerous.

[betsyross1776]

I have been to this town in the 60s . My girlfriend lived there and it was a nice place to live. You could walk down the streets at midnight if you could not sleep. The people were the best. Small and great is what I could say about it. But it was destroyed.It was safer in this town then it is in small town America. This town had no drugs, sometimes sure people got drunk , but nobody ever feared from the people of this town. If God wills and I am still alive I will go down there when they open that capsule and feel that a beautiful place is now gone.

[GOP_1900AD]

Seems like an opportunity to do some sort of massive uncoventional power generation. Inject water and recover the steam, etc. If it will burn for hundreds of years, I say tap it!

[Tribune7]

ping

[Petronski]

The ways in have been bulldozed in the last few years because the fedgov got real serious about keeping folks out.

That's wise. I'd never drive a car through there, it's too heavy. The ground could literally swallow it up. I wouldn't walk through either Imagine getting CO poisoning before you could escape!?!

Only an ATV would do.

There was a great little website with an amateur short film I saw not too long ago. I wonder if anyone has the link.

[Petronski]

The above image is highlighted to point out the visible hot spots that burn close to the surface. Often the smoke and steam is quite visible. The ground is typically hot and all vegetation is dead. These areas are prone to subsidence, noxious fumes and high levels of carbon monoxide. The area at the top of the photo is the most visible. The fire burning below has recently encroached into the cemeteries. The area in the lower half of the image is a hillside along the old section of Rt. 61 where the fire has burned enough coal to cause subsidence that damaged the roadway. A large crack has opened up in the roadway, which bellows smoke and steam continually.

http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/virtual.htm

[Petronski]

The film is here: http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/multimedia.htm

[listenhillary]

What is interesting is I grew up in West of Ashland and Centralia is about 35 miles north, in Missouri.

[Petronski]

Here's a quick video podcast, high-quality, about this strange place.

Right click to save. 29.5 MB for four minutes of video, in MP4 format.

[abner]

I went there at night a few years back right before they closed the roads for good... Cool but eerie place.

[chae]

Off the subject, I saw a preview for the horror movie "Silent Hill". This article immedately made me think of that trailer.

[MD_Willington_1976]

seen it on TV

[Nathan Zachary]

Sounds like a great place to harvest some geothermal heat. You'd never need to pay for heat in the winter. Bury a few water tanks.

[RoadTest]

Thank you. That was informative.

[airborne]

Yes, I've been there. It's a ghost town now.

A sulpher smelling ghost town.

[MeanWestTexan]

Yeah, in places like China and India where they burn coal without scrubbing, I really suspect people are going to have a fair increase in cancer deaths from NORM.

Fortunately, the particles are relatively heavy and it's primarily a local issue.