When explorers came across burn Mountain in the 18th one C , they mistake it for a vent . However , it turned out they had falter on something much foreign . Found in Australia ’s New South Wales , this is the site of the earth ’s oldest known ember attack that has n’t gone out for thousands of years .
Most scientist believe the fervour has been burning for at least 6,000 years , although some compete it ’s much older .
It ’s place around 30 meters ( 98 feet ) underground beneath Mount Wingen . The news Wingen , by no coincidence , stand for “ fire ” in the primaeval language of the local Wonaruah people . Since it is underground , it ’s not potential to see the blast or even discern its sizing , but smoke rising from the good deal is grounds of its bearing .
" No one knows the size of the fire under Burning Mountain , you could only generalise it , " Guillermo Rein , a professor of flame skill at Imperial College London in the UK , toldScienceAlertin 2022 .
" It ’s likely a ball of around 5 to 10 meters [ 16 to 32 feet ] in diameter , reaching temperatures of 1,000 degree Celsius [ 1,832 Fahrenheit ] , " he explained
It ’s fuelled by the mass of coal lying beneath the mountain . Just like a chunk of coal turning snowy in a fireplace , the flameless fervour slowly crawl through the ember at around 1 meter ( over 3 foot ) per year .
The age estimate are work out by measuring the path of the fire , which stretches for around 6.5 kilometers ( 4 miles ) , and the rate at which it sunburn . The accuracy is , however , no one have a go at it when it started .
It ’s not certain how the fervor started either , but it almost certainly was n’t humans . A lightning rap or a ferocious brush firing are considered the just explanations .
write ina blog postthat details his visit to Burning Mountain , Professor Rein explains that the high temperature pumped out from the coal fire has created a 50 - meter ( 164 - base ) sphere around the brow that ’s devoid of any botany .
He observe that like belowground coal fires have been observe elsewhere in the world , most notably in China , India , and the US . For instance , the Centralia mine fire in Pennsylvania was erupt by fortuity in 1962 at a labyrinth of abandoned ember mine . Despite several endeavor to extinguish it , it ’s still burning to this day and is expected to continue blaze for another 250 years .
you could catch a glance of Burning Mountain if you shoot the breeze theBurning Mountain Nature Reserve , less than a four - hour ride from Sydney . check that you do n’t perch a coffin nail here , though – the nature reserve ’s web site makes it very exculpated that this is a no - smoking area .
