Flaming Dragon

[wolf]

From the page you linked to it appears that they tried flushing the mine with water with no success. That, along with other assorted bits of ineptitude, has allowed the coal to continue burning.

Pennsylvania, as I recall from numerous grade school reports, mines the hardest and longest burning variety of coal. That's not helping the situation.

Two points of the fire triangle aren't going away any time soon ... fuel and heat are there in abundance. The only hope of extinguishing the fire is to remove the oxygen.

[Griff]

Question: Doesn't the particulate from this kind of fire have more cooling impact than the gases have a warming impact?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Griff

Question: Doesn't the particulate from this kind of fire have more cooling impact than the gases have a warming impact?

I don't think so. While the ash may provide some temporary "shade" like volcanic ash, as it settles out acress the artic it'll reduce reflection and increase absorbtion of sunlight. Plus;

"A ton of ash results in a bit more than the equivalent in carbon dioxide, and a third of a ton of methane. Compared with carbon dioxide, methane produces 21 times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions."

All that greenhouse gas should more than cancel the shade effect.
I'm no expert but it doesn't sound like a good situation to me.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by wolf

Pennsylvania, as I recall from numerous grade school reports, mines the hardest and longest burning variety of coal. That's not helping the situation.

Yes, anthracite, same as the Flaming Dragon.