[coryk135]

This part really caught my attention:

> in 1962, the anthracite seam under Centralia, PA – 25 miles to the west of Lehigh County – caught on fire and is still burning today.)

That’s crazy to think that for over 60 years there’s been an underground coal mine on fire. I wonder how long the mines will burn for. The pictures on Google are quite interesting.

[shagie]

When you're driving through North Dakota and see the red clinker in the cliffs along the highway...

https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/ndn13_h.htm and https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/documents/newsletter/2013Winter/...

> Several early explorers reported coal fires in the northern Great Plains region. Over the years, range fires have ignited lignite beds many times. In two places in western North Dakota, in Theodore Roosevelt National Park and near Amidon, lignite seams were recently burning for many years. A seam of lignite at Buck Hill in the park burned from 1951-1977.

And that's the modern history.

> Years ago, during fieldwork on the major buttes of western North Dakota, John Hoganson and I discovered clinker pebbles in the Arikaree Formation indicating that coals had been burning prior to when these rocks were deposited some 25 million years ago. Probably as far back as 40 million years ago, when grasslands were first established, fires have swept across the plains of North Dakota igniting coal seams.

[toenail]

There's also one in Germany that's been burning since the 17th century, Goethe even visited and wrote about it, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennender_Berg

[themaninthedark]

There is also Yanar Dagh in Azerbaijan.

Wiki says the fire started in the 1950's but CNN says 4 thousand years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanar_Dagh https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/yanar-dag-azerbaijan-land...

[Peanuts99]

There's Burning Mountain in Australia which has been burning for thousands of years.

[arrosenberg]

And a burning crater in Turkmenistan that's been going since the 70s.

[725686]

6,000 years, according to Wikipeda. That is wild.

[subpixel]

I've been there. It's where my ancestors are from, and an area of PA where all the jobs and civic like burned up long ago as well. Not a fun region.

[jdwithit]

Yeah the Centralia story is wild. Who knows when the fire might ever go out? It's caught the imagination of many writers over the years, who have either been inspired by it or used it directly as a setting. Mostly in horror/paranormal content. As the Wikipedia entry notes

"Centralia has been used as a model for many different fictional ghost towns and manifestations of Hell. Prominent examples include Dean Koontz's Strange Highways and David Wellington's Vampire Zero."

[coryk135]

I was thinking about that. It sounds like a great setting for a story but I felt like I’d seen it before and I guess this is why.

[yencabulator]

I see your underground coal fire and raise you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklo