Burning Mountain

Burning Mountain is a strange and marvelous place, like no other we’ve ever seen. The Martian landscape and sulfurous air make it an otherworldly experience.  It is such an intriguing place that we went back again after first visiting here in 2015.  The countryside around Burning Mountain is hilly pastureland.

So it’s quite a surprise to see that just a short distance beyond this bucolic paddock is the barren, orange top of a small mountain.

Burning Mountain, as the name implies, is on fire.  Not on the surface, however, but deep below.  About 20 - 30 metres (70 - 100 ft) underground is a blast furnace – a coal seam that has been burning for at least 6,000 years at a temperature of around 1700 degrees C (3090 F).  Moving at about a metre (3 ft) a year, the hellish temperatures of the fire scald the ground above it. 

 Only dead trunks and tree limbs are left on the scalded land

At the peak, where the fire is hottest, the ground is a barren Mars-scape and the ground is hot to the touch.  The intense temperature causes minerals in the soil to react and change colour, creating patches of red and orange (iron), yellow (sulphur), and white, (alum). 

The stink of sulphur wafts out of narrow channels, called chimneys, that run down through the earth into the inferno.  These vents suck in air and exhaust out burned gasses.  As the fumes reach the surface, they cool and form sinter, a hard mineralized rock which can grow into otherworldly colours and shapes.

Sinter – the black spot on the middle right is a chimney

As the coal seams burns onward, the land behind slowly recovers from nearly being cooked to death.  With enough time, the scars left by the subterranean fires nearly disappear leaving only small spots of brightly colored ground and the occasional collapsed chimney, overgrown by vines, shrubs and trees.