The slow burn

Long term fire.  It turns out there are many very long lasting fires.  I became interested in the way fire moves underground back in 02000 when I saw parts of the Long Now property on fire, and the fire was spreading through the root systems of trees.  Every 5 minutes or so a tree would just appear to spontaneously combust.  That fire eventually blew up in near nuclear proportions (mushroom cloud and everything) and tragically took out a swath of the ancient bristlecones.

Since then I have noted several long term and underground fires (which also  produce massive amount of global CO2).  The one pictured above from Uzbekistan is one of the more photogenic.  I will keep the list below updated as I find more (like I do with the Underground Wonders post), so feel free to make notes of ones you know about in the comments and they will be added.

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The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit established in 01996 to foster long-term thinking. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.

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