Wednesday, November 9, 2016

SearchResearch Challenge (11/9/16): Self-sustaining disasters?

Every so often, something goes very wrong... 


... and under certain circumstances, it not only can go wrong, but then keep the disaster going for years--and sometimes for centuries.  

This week, while reading something on a completely different topic, I discovered a couple of natural phenomena that I didn't expect.  In this week's Challenge, let me describe them to you, and see if you can find them as well.  (This week is a fun Challenge, not a difficult one.  We need a bit of a break from the past few weeks.  But this is definitely interesting!)  

1.  I found out, much to my surprise, that there are several places where fires have been going on for years and years.  How is this possible?  Can you find THREE such places on Earth?  How long has the oldest fire been a-flame?   (No, none of these are volcanoes...)  
2.  A related kind of surprising on-going process is the recent discovery of a natural atomic fission reactor!  Apparently, there is at least one place in the world where fission has been taking place without the use of any technology.  Where is this place, and how is such a thing even possible?  (Don't you need complex reactor buildings, control rooms, and trained operators?)  What's the story here?  
3.  Can you find any other related on-going natural disasters like this?  To qualify, they should be processes that run for many years at a time (not just single eruptions or earthquakes).  

When you find the answer, let us know.  I suspect there are multiple kinds of disasters at work in the world, and I'm curious what you discover.  

Search on!  


10 comments:

  1. Good day, Dr. Russell and everyone.

    1. I found out, much to my surprise, that there are several places where fires have been going on for years and years. How is this possible? Can you find THREE such places on Earth? How long has the oldest fire been a-flame? (No, none of these are volcanoes...)

    I was writing [Fires... when Google suggested [fires that have been burning for years]

    Coal seam fires: Centralia, Pennsylvania, and a burning Mountain in Australia, which has been ablaze for 6,000 years. Also mentions, China, India and Germany.

    One of India's largest and most productive coal fields is also home to some of the longest-burning fires in the world.

    Raging in mines from Pennsylvania to China, coal fires threaten towns, poison air and water, and add to global warming

    [longest-burning fires in the world]

    Wikipedia: List of mine fires Also mentions Darvaza a location in Turkmenistan with a burning natural gas deposit.

    5 Places That Are Still On Fire

    How long can fires burn? In the US, a fire set in 1884 by striking miners in New Straitsville, Ohio is still burning underground...

    [Derweze fire] on News

    The 5 Scariest Places In The World (2016)The Door to Hell, Derweze, Ahal Province, Turkmenistan lit since 1971

    The world's wildest natural phenomena and where to see them

    [Brennender Berg fire]

    Bennender Berg ...All attempts to extinguish the flame proved unsuccessful, which left smoke emanating from the Earth itself and, as Goethe attested, the ground warm to the touch. Reports of an orangey glow radiating through cracks in the rock circulated, and turned Brennender Berg into a tourist attraction throughout the Victorian Era even as its fires cooled toward the end of the 18th century...

    Answer : India's Jharia coal field, Pennsylvania and Australia’s BurningMountain, the oldest known coal fire are some of these fires

    3. Can you find any other related on-going natural disasters like this? To qualify, they should be processes that run for many years at a time (not just single eruptions or earthquakes).

    Answer : Found while searching question 1.

    The Door to Hell, Derweze Turkmenistan was started by humans but I think can be fit now in on-going natural disaster. Another one that I think off is not a disaster but how our planet is and is natural and on-going: The movement of tectonic plates and yes, sometimes this causes disasters.

    I will search for more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. [natural disasters lasting years]

      In the last 20 years, flooding has been the most common natural disaster by far, accounting for 43% of all recorded events. The report also emphasizes the increase in weather-related natural disasters across the period

      [similar events to coal fires]

      The USGS was silent on the percentage of the worlds CO2 emissions were related to coal seam fires, but sources suggest a range of from 0.3% to 3.0%.

      Coal seam fire also known mine fire.

      With [Coal fires] Google also answered [What is the world's longest burning fire?]

      An underground fire in Australia has been burning continuously since before the Bronze Age

      There actually are many of these underground fires across the planet, They’re a type of low-temperature, flameless combustion called a smoldering fire. And links to The New York Times The Fire Down Below

      "Smoldering fires, the slow, low-temperature, flameless form of combustion, are an important phenomena in the Earth system, and the most persistent type of combustion."

      The article links to another one in which Clean Coal Center is mentioned...In the United States, a common cause of such fires has been the burning of trash dumped into abandoned mines....

      [smoldering fire maps] and [smoldering fires world] has good links to about Climate change and these fires

      Smoldering poses an imminent threat, despite the intrinsic dampness of peat. “Peat fires are dominated by smoldering combustion, which is ignited more readily than flaming combustion and can persist in wet conditions... Coal fire similarities with peat fires.

      Delete
  2. I Googled "perpetual fires on earth" and found this link: http://mentalfloss.com/article/52869/5-places-are-still-fire. I live not to far from one of them, Centralia, PA, so I had some idea of what I was probably looking for.

    The natural atomic fission reactor is in Gabon, West Africa -https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/natures-nuclear-reactors-the-2-billion-year-old-natural-fission-reactors-in-gabon-western-africa/

    This is the closest I could come for on-going natural disasters: http://www.extinctiontheory.com/can-the-philippines-recover-from-non-stop-natural-disasters/

    This all took about 15 minutes - sorry I don't have time to be more thorough.

    ReplyDelete
  3. … a bit of video, usually nice to have a little visual evidence…
    [smoking hills Cape Bathurst, Inuvik, Unorganized, NT, Canada]
    "In 1850, Captain Robert McClure was sailing his ship Investigator in the Arctic in search of the Franklin Expedition, which disappeared trying to find the Northwest Passage. He never found Franklin’s crew (and no one else ever did either), but he did rediscover something else: massive fires on the rocky shores and peaks of Cape Bathurst. McClure assumed the fires were set by the local Inuit people to get their attention, so he sent a landing party to see what was going on and look for information about the fate of the Franklin crew. The shore party returned to the ship with no such information, but they did bring along a curious piece of rock. When they set the rock on the Captain’s mahogany desk, it burned a hole right through the wood. They had rediscovered the Smoking Hills.Franklin himself had discovered and named the Smoking Hills on his 1826 journey to try to find the Northwest Passage. He recorded the presence of weird smoke coming from fires in the hills, smoke that was visible from the sea, and fires that burned where there was little to no vegetation. The Inuit had called it the “land of sour water” because the burning underground oil shale left behind water that was highly acidic and poisoned with heavy metals."

    Jeff Bridges said to mention "Starman"
    Barringer Crater
    Starman
    overlook… always be camera ready

    ReplyDelete
  4. 2. A related kind of surprising on-going process is the recent discovery of a natural atomic fission reactor! Apparently, there is at least one place in the world where fission has been taking place without the use of any technology. Where is this place, and how is such a thing even possible? (Don't you need complex reactor buildings, control rooms, and trained operators?) What's the story here?

    Started with [Fussion Vs Fission] in Spanish and English and then [ Fision natural]

    Fission vs. Fusion – What’s the Difference? ...Inside the sun, fusion reactions take place at very high temperatures and enormous gravitational pressures...The word fusion means "a merging of separate elements into a unified whole"...The word fission means "a splitting or breaking up into parts" (Merriam-Webster Online, www.m-w.com)....

    Bienvenidos al único reactor de fisión nuclear ‘natural’ que se conoce en el mundoOklo: Bangombé, Gabón. Article mentions why now aren't more like this one and mentions 2 physicist Paul K. Kuroda, Arkansas University 1956. And, 1953 by George W. Wetherill who thought about this hypothesis.

    Wikipedia article mentions " Origin of the Moon hypothesis"

    [Oklo Gabon natural fission reactor]

    There are four conditions which must be met in order for a stable natural nuclear reactor to develop:

    [georeactors]

    The Georeactor theory is, the theory that at earth's center fission reactions are taking place and generating our magnetic field, and supplying enough energy to heat most of our planet's interior. Not evidence in either way

    [atomic bomb fission or fusion]

    From Wikipedia: A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion (thermonuclear weapon)

    And recently watched a TV Show that showed Atomic bombs in Australia Maralinga.

    VIDEO: Australia's first atomic bomb test, 1952. Mentions Avon Hudson

    Australian Map of Nuclear and Uranium Sites Also shows videos of Avon Hudson

    Maralinga nuclear tests, 60 years on: a reminder not to put security before scrutiny

    Avon Hudson

    Also, today read this article about:
    Massive 'lake' found beneath Bolivia's Uturuncu volcano Not natural dystaster but an on-going nature event

    ReplyDelete
  5. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-nuclear-reactor/

    ReplyDelete
  6. …self-sustaining disasters aside for a moment… some diversions —
    thought the drool was a +
    moments before the attack…
    …which went virtually unreported by major news organs… Buddha speed, John FFF. Kerry.
    ɡädˈspēd
    August Heart
    speed kills
    tiny b
    a thought
    manifest
    Sir Elton

    why is there no emoji for doom?
    concern
    bereft of…
    nearby nuclear event - daily
    incoming

    ReplyDelete
  7. A1. Three places on the Earth where fires have been going on for many years:

    1. Derweze, Turkmenistan (1971)
    2. Centralia Mine, US (1962)
    3. Jharia, India (1916)

    The world's oldest underground fire is in Mount Wingen, Australia. (Source: Gizmodo)

    A2. Such a thing is possible. A 1956 paper by Kuroda is said to explain the mechanism of these natural nuclear reactors how. The only natural fission reactor in the world is found in Oklo, Gabon. (Source: Scientific American)

    A3. Confused! -_-

    ReplyDelete