There are three components in the heart of fire: combustible substances, oxygen, and heat – these make up the so-called triangle of fire. If none of the batteries run out, the flames can in principle burn out forever. As a result, one of the world’s oldest fires blazed in Australia more than 5,500 years ago.
Early humans discovered the use of fire at least a million years ago, and from there a lasting “love story” between civilization and resources arose. Most of the fires in our daily lives these days are just a passing phenomenon, lasting only as long as the candle wick or tree trunks burn in the fireplace. However, all over the world, various self-igniting flames have been burning for centuries and even millennia.
According to Tina Bell, a fire ecologist at the University of Sydney, the core of a fire contains three components: combustible matter, oxygen and heat – these make up the so-called triangle of fire. If none of the batteries runs out, the flames can burn forever – it turns out that a From an article in Live Science.
In eastern Australia, on Mount Wengen, everything has been presented to the Triangle of Fire for thousands of years, making the world’s oldest fire burning about 5,500 years ago. According to Bell, thousands of years ago, some carbon in the natural formation appeared on the surface and then exploded by lightning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USzJ87TmqJ8
The fires have not been extinguished since, so the height of the coal bed decreases by about one meter per year during continuous burning.
Burning below the surface at a depth of about 30 meters, the flames completely changed the color of the soil in a 0.5 acre area of Burning Mountain Nature Preserve. According to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, clouds of sulfur smoke rise from glowing underground flames through the vents.
Wengen Mountain, or, as it is now called, the Burning Mountain with a blazing fire under its surface for thousands of years, has been an indispensable element of the legends of the locals, but the Burning Mountain also fascinated the first Europeans. The first settlers at first called the mountain a volcano, although in its depths it is not magma, but coal.
As the only coal bed in Australia that burns naturally, Mount Wingen is one of thousands of coal fires in the world. However, it is important to note that the ancient fires raging in Australia cause far fewer problems than some of their counterparts. According to a 2009 study published by the US Geological Survey, there are many uncontrollable fires in the United States that emit toxic substances.
Cover image illustration.
