A Study of Underground Coal Mine Fires

For one of my final blog posts on here, I would like to educate you about underground coal mine fires and their dangers as they are found across the United States.

A diagram showing how these fires work. Source: http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/Issues/AlaskaCoal/CoalFires.html

What’s the problem?

These mines became abandoned over time due to collapse or various health hazards and there is no real way to clean up the mines once they’re left. The coal just sits there in highly compacted corridors until it ignites from spontaneous combustion. Since there are still massive amounts of coal left in the mine, the fire can pretty much burn indefinitely until the temperature builds up so much it eventually cracks the surface so smoke can escape as pictured below.

Smoke rising from a large crack in Pennsylvania Highway 61. Source: https://www.history.com/news/mine-fire-burning-more-50-years-ghost-town

Where are they?

Most abandoned coal mines in the U.S. are in the East, with roughly 60% of them being three main states: West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky.

Top 5 biggest states for coal. East – KY, WV, & PA. West – WY & MT. Source: https://wvcoalassociation.wordpress.com/news-comment/coal-mining-101/

 Mitigation Efforts

Coal fire prevention is not unseen; ideally, the exposed surface is sprayed following the mining, and then grout injections into the cracks and vents to cut off continued growth, but the process of doing it scales with how big the fire is, and since most of these have seemingly endless supplies of coal, the cost to extinguish them is massive.

Source: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/specific-and-non-specific-hazards-in-underground-mines-2367338

Centralia, PA

Centralia, Pennsylvania is one of the biggest and longest-burning underground coal fires in the United States since 1962, burning at depths of up to 300 feet across an 8-mile radius. Records show that at its current rate, Centralia could burn for another 250 years. As of 2017, the current population is all the way down to 5 from 1,500 back in 1962.

• Fun Fact: The town council had originally planned to clean up the strip mine dump but made no official documentation in the minutes, most likely because their plan detailed just setting it on fire, which is against state law.

The town that set itself on fire. Source: https://rare.us/rare-life/centralia-mine-fire-pa-burning/

• Fun Fact #2: The horror franchise “Silent Hill” is loosely based on Centralia, PA. Claiming instead of an underground burning coal mine under the city, but instead an entrance to Hell.

Sources: Centralia Mine Fire, Abandoned Mines, Mitigation, Gallery Photo 1, Gallery Photo 2, Gallery Photo 3, Gallery Photo 4.

Ghost Stories of Geography: Bermuda Edition

This week on Oceans Seven I am taking you further southeast than any place we’ve gone in my past blogs. I wanted to try something new, so I thought I would delve into one of the pop culture ghost stories used in North America: the Bermuda Triangle!

The Triangle’s lethality is blamed on all sorts of phenomena ranging from Otherworldly StormsAliens to the birthplace of Atlantis.

To give you some introduction knowledge on the area, the Bermuda Triangle is a section of the Atlantic Ocean over 500,000 square miles long and is tipped at 3 points by Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico; forming a triangle as pictured in the photo above. Since the early 1900s, dozens of ships and airplanes have disappeared in the waters, but half of them remain unexplained as to how they disappeared. Despite these suspicious scenarios, their frequency here is no different than planes/ships disappearing in any other section of the ocean.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/878063/aliens-ufo-bermuda-triangle-flight-19-christopher-Columbus

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-bermuda-triangle-myths-mysteries-disappearances-vanishes

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-bermuda-triangle-myths-mysteries-disappearances-vanishes

One of the most famous incidents (coined Flight 19) took place in 1945 and involved five U.S. Navy bombers carrying fourteen men from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Their original plan was to practice some bombing runs on a nearby area but apparently, the flight leaders’ compass began to malfunction and he was lost from the rest of the squadron, resulting in the rest of the planes flying aimlessly with no navigation until they ran out of fuel and were lost at sea. A few hours later a rescue plane with a thirteen-man crew disappeared as well. After weeks of searching with no evidence, the Navy concluded the investigation with no answers.

Flight 19 crew.

How Does it Work?

One of the most common explanations for the Bermuda Triangle is magnetism! Our planet’s magnetic North isn’t the same as its geographic North; meaning that compasses don’t exactly point true North unless they are being read along an agonic line. Coincidentally enough, one of these lines runs from Lake Superior down to the Gulf of Mexico (near Fort Lauderdale, FL which is one of the points of the triangle as mentioned above). With this knowledge, one can assume that back then, sailors would account for discrepancies in their compass readings because they would think they’re close enough to the agonic line that throws them off. I have attached a video below that delves into magnetic declination and agonic lines.

For More Information:

Sources: The Mysterious Disappearance of Flight 19, Featured Image, Bermuda Triangle, Bermuda Triangle History, What Science Can Tell Us.

An Underground Jewel

So when you think of an aquifer or water table, how big do you imagine they are? A couple thousand feet? A few miles? Well, today I’m going to tell you about the Ogallala Aquifer that is over 170,000 miles long and is almost equal in size to Lake Huron that I mentioned a couple blog posts ago! Due to its massive size and freshwater nature, this water reserve is vital to the agricultural structure of the High Plains region.

Center-pivot sprinklers are a common irrigation method in the High Plains.

Creation

This aquifer was created roughly 10 million years ago by stream deposition from the Rocky Mountains. Because of erosion, the deposits from the mountains are gone so there is no more recharge. Nowadays the recharge relies solely on rainwater and snowmelt and is composed primarily of unconsolidated clay, sand, silt, and gravel with groundwater filling in all of the spaces between them.

Why it’s Important

The High Plains region supplies almost one-fifth of the annual U.S. agriculture harvest and relies heavily on the aquifer for the supply. Contamination has become an increasing risk since the 1990s and now in some places, the groundwater is completely gone.

How you can help:

For more information:

Sources: Ogallala Aquifer, Saving a Vital U.S. Water Source, Water Encyclopedia, The High Plains Aquifer.

Welcome to the Commonwealth

Welcome to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Lancaster County is famous for its large Amish community, which is weirdly a major tourist destination! The reason the Amish gathered here in PA originally is because of the religious freedom that William Penn, the founder of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth, offered them and the Quakers back in 1787.

If you are unfamiliar with the Amish Community they are a group of Christian traditionalists and are known for their simple living, plain dress, pacifism, and are abrupt to change with modern technology. Members of the community are asked to be baptized and repent otherwise they are shunned and excommunicated, which is a tactic to try and shame them into returning to the church. As of 2010 their population had reached a whopping 249,000 but has likely steadily grown due to their families having upwards of 6-7 children.

Sources: Flag & Coat of Arms, Map, Lancaster County, PA, Pennsylvania, Amish Women, Amish Inn, Amish Farm, Amish Burial Practices.

Take Me Home… to Maryland!

“Take Me Home, Country Roads” is a timeless country American classic published by John Denver in 1971. This song has been used for years in marketing campaigns to help invoke a sense of nostalgia to listeners because of its catchy tune and lyrics giving you a feeling of home and pride for the country. Before we delve into the immense history of this song, here are the lyrics and a music video to help introduce you to it if you aren’t familiar already:

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads

All my memories gather 'round her
Miner's lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice in the mornin' hour, she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
Drivin' down the road, I get a feelin'
That I should've been home yesterday, yesterday

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads

Take me home, down country roads
Take me home, down country roads

To give some background to this song, it was originally written by Bill Danoff and his wife, Taffy Nivert. They were driving down an old road in Montgomery County, Maryland, and this sparked the beginning of the first words “country roads”. The rest of his original lyrics were drawn from his home state of Massachusetts and memories of his childhood, thus invoking the nostalgia feeling in the song. He ended up using the neighbour state of West Virginia because it had a much better ring than Massachusetts. One night after performing at a concert with Denver, they played it for him afterwards and he loved it so much they stayed up all night changing up the lyrics and creating the masterpiece we have today.

The geography of this beautiful state helped inspire every aspect of this song, all the way from the sparkling waters of the Shenandoah River to the highest peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The original roads that inspired the song (Clopper Road which is in the picture above) have since been repaved and updated as a part of Hwy 270, but the origins of this song live on in West Virginian culture.

Since its 1971 publication, the song has been played at every single West Virginia University Football game as their anthem and in most recent years, specifically 2017, the West Virginia Tourism Office bought the rights to the song to help with their marketing.

Other Popular uses:

Used as an emotional death scene in the blockbuster movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

Used as background in the announcement trailer for Bethesda’s Fallout 76 game but went on to be the main theme song in the game and plays on loop on one of the radio stations in the game.

The Greenbrier is one of the most popular resorts in America, ironically also located in West Virginia, and they feature singing telegrams under in-room amenities with one of the song choices being Country Roads!

 

Sources: Shenandoah River Picture, Clopper Road Picture, History of Take Me Home, Country Roads, The Greenbrier.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Pt. 7

Vancouver marmot (Marmota vancouverensis)

For the final part of this series, I chose to end with the Vancouver Marmot.  If you are not sure what a marmot is then just imagine a mix of a large squirrel and a chipmunk. These furry herbivores normally travel in small groups and are found in tall forests in the trees. Due to their small stature, they are prone to wolves and cougars, occasionally even birds if they’re big enough.

The forests they find a home are beginning to decline due to climate change. Rising temperatures have drastically reduced the amount of open alpine landscapes available, resulting in a very small survival rate. This, coupled with clear-cutting/deforestation and the other natural predators in the area has made the local populations drop from several hundred around the late 80s to less than 50 in the early 2000s. Only thanks to conservation measures and captivity breeding have we been able to increase their population back to triple digits.

If you stuck around for all 7 parts of this series, I truly appreciate your support and if you have not then I will provide links to the past 6 so you can catch up if you’d like: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

Sources: Most Endangered Species in North America, Map Source 1, Map Source 2.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Pt. 6

Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis)

As my series starts to come to an end, I saved two of the most important ones for last, and today’s pick is the Staghorn coral. What makes this coral so important is it’s one of the three that helped build the original Caribbean coral reefs over 5,000 years ago. These reefs are vital to the surrounding ecosystem because they are an important habitat for some of the nearby fish species.

Like most forms of coral, it is highly susceptible to changes in salinity and temperature. Due to climate change and rising sea levels, these corals are unable to keep up. Studies show that ocean acidity has increased by 30% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This drastic change has pushed corals to start bleaching themselves, rendering them unable to deposit the exoskeletons that form new reefs, resulting in a 90% loss of all staghorn corals in the Caribbean.

Keep an eye out tomorrow for my final post in this series! I appreciate you for sticking around this long.

Sources: Photo Source, NOAA.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Pt. 5

California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus)

Continuing our trek through the West Coast of California, we head further inland to meet the California Condor! This bird is known as the largest North American land bird, but contrary to most scenarios involving birds of prey, the female is smaller than the male counterpart. The California Condor actually went extinct in the wild back in 1987 and looking at the maps above/below you can see how big their past habitat range (above) is compared to now (below). Thanks to conservation efforts and breeding facilities, we have kept them from going extinct and were even able to reintroduce them to the wild back in the early 2000s.

These birds are vital to their surrounding ecosystems in that they promote biodiversity in the environment and are a possible keystone species, meaning their full extinction could lead to a collapse in other animals’ populations! Not to mention that one of the main reasons for their rapid is poaching and lead poisoning, so don’t we owe it to them to try and help keep their population on a positive trend?

Sources: Condor Photo, Past Map, Present Map.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Pt. 4

Giant Seabass (Stereolepis gigas)

For today’s post, I thought we could venture a little east but underwater to the Giant Seabass. What makes this species of fish so unique is their ability to grow to extraordinary lengths, with some measuring 7 feet and 700 pounds! Aside from their massive weight, they can also display an array of colors throughout their life cycle with juveniles starting off as bright orange with black spots, and over time the orange turns to a nice purple bronze as the spots fade.

This unique species of fish are also at the top of its food chain, making it vital to an optimum balance in the surrounding marine environment. The reason this species of fish is threatened is primarily over-fishing. Back in the 1970’s they were a popular catch in coastal California regions and it resulted in them being targeted specifically during most trips and the population slowly declined until they had to pass a law banning commercial and sport fishing this species so the population could stabilize.

Sources: Endangered Species in North America, National Park Service, Spotting Giant Seabass.

 

A Series of Unfortunate Events Pt. 3

Oahu Tree Snails (Achatinella)

For todays segment we’re going slightly further west to the Hawaiian Islands, specifically the island of Oahu! We’re going to be looking at the colorful Oahu Tree Snails who are known for their brightly colored and patterned shells. They used to be so abundant on the island that local stories say you could literally shake a tree and handfuls of these snails would fall to the ground!

The main reason historically for their decline around the region is collectors, human tourists love the colors and patterns of their shells and will often extract and take them. This,  coupled with their low fertility rate and loss of habitat for more human destinations, has resulted in them only being able to be found around the high mountain ridges of Oahu’s two extinct volcanoes.

Sources: Endangered Species of North America, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Native Snails on the Poamoho Trail, Snail Photo 2.