Tripping from the Fall Line: Field Excursions for the GSA Annual Meeting, Baltimore, 2015

Prepared in conjunction with the 2015 GSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, this volume contains guides to field trips in this historic region. Emanating from the Fall Line city of Baltimore, these trips reflect the diversity of geological features in the mid-Atlantic region including the Piedmont, Appalachian Mountains, and Coastal Plain, and the importance of geology on the development and construction of the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Trips to the core of the Appalachian orogen concern themselves with the tectonic and metamorphic history, early Paleozoic carbonate platform development, Devonian paleoclimate, and coal-mine fire hazards. Excursions to the Coastal Plain examine various aspects of Cenozoic stratigraphy, structure, barrier island formation, and wetland and ecosystem development. A variety of trips also explore urban geology, including building and monument stones of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., urban hydrogeology, and Civil War battlefield geology.
The Centralia coal mine fire (Centralia, Pennsylvania): A field guide for an evolving system
-
Published:January 01, 2015
-
CiteCitation
Jennifer M. Elick, 2015. "The Centralia coal mine fire (Centralia, Pennsylvania): A field guide for an evolving system", Tripping from the Fall Line: Field Excursions for the GSA Annual Meeting, Baltimore, 2015, David K. Brezinski, Jeffrey P. Halka, Richard A. Ortt, Jr.
Download citation file:
- Share
Abstract
Burning and evolving for over 50 years, the anthracite coal fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, has provided researchers with an ideal environment to study how shallow coal fires affect surface vegetation, nutrients and soil, landscape subsidence, organisms, fire migration, as well as human health. Ten years ago, surface temperatures from some gas exhaust vents were measured to be between 456° and 540 °C, and the fire was recorded to be moving rapidly at a rate of 20–22 m/yr. However, the fire has changed considerably since that time. Today, the average annual temperature of surface exhaust vents is ~65 °C, and its rate of movement is nearly unperceivable. In light of the changing parameters of the fire, Centralia continues to provide an interesting environment in which to study the effects of a subsurface anthracite coal fire on the landscape. This field trip will examine the geologic structure of the region, the Buck Mountain coal succession, the geomorphic features produced by the fire, the environmental consequences related to the removal of natural resources like coal, how a government responds to regional environmental disasters like coal fires, and the legacy of a coal fire on a region. Over the past decade, this fire and its influence on the landscape have changed considerably. However, there are still many interesting things to learn from this fire and the surrounding region.