What Is the 6,000-Year-Old Fire Still Burning Underground in Australia?

The 6,000-year-old fire still burning underground in Australia is a coal seam fire beneath Burning Mountain, ignited by lightning before the Egyptian pyramids were built. This ancient fire has been continuously burning for roughly six millennia and continues to burn today.

The Ancient Fire That Predates Civilization

Beneath Burning Mountain (Mount Wingen) in New South Wales, Australia, lies one of Earth’s oldest continuously burning fires. This underground coal seam fire began approximately 6,000 years ago when lightning struck the exposed coal deposits, creating a blaze that has never been extinguished.

The fire predates many of humanity’s greatest achievements—burning since before the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, and the rise of ancient civilizations. While empires rose and fell, this subterranean inferno has continued its relentless consumption of coal deposits deep underground.

How the Underground Fire Transforms the Landscape

The effects of this ancient fire are visible on the surface. The ground above the burning coal seam reaches temperatures so extreme that it effectively sterilizes the soil, preventing plant growth and creating barren patches across the mountainside. The intense underground heat kills any vegetation attempting to establish roots in the affected areas.

Early European explorers in the region mistook Burning Mountain for an active volcano due to the heat emanating from the ground and the visible effects on the landscape. They had no way of knowing they were witnessing the surface effects of a fire that had been burning since prehistoric times—a fire that ancient Aboriginal peoples had observed for generations.

A Global Phenomenon Hidden Beneath Our Feet

Burning Mountain is far from unique. Underground coal fires burn on every continent across the globe, representing a largely hidden environmental phenomenon that has significant implications for our planet’s carbon cycle. These subterranean blazes release substantial amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, with some individual coal fires producing emissions comparable to entire countries.

These underground fires can burn for centuries or even millennia, sustained by vast coal deposits and fed by oxygen seeping through cracks in the earth. They spread slowly but steadily, typically advancing only a few meters per year, making them difficult to detect and virtually impossible to extinguish once established.

The Environmental Impact of Ancient Coal Fires

The environmental implications of these long-burning coal fires extend far beyond their immediate surroundings. Scientists estimate that underground coal fires worldwide contribute significantly to global carbon emissions, releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide annually. Some of these fires have been burning for so long that they’ve become integrated into local ecosystems, creating unique geological and biological conditions.

The fire beneath Burning Mountain moves approximately one meter southward each year, slowly consuming new coal deposits while leaving behind a trail of altered geology. Researchers study these ancient fires to better understand long-term geological processes and their environmental impacts.

The Future of Earth’s Oldest Fire

Scientists predict that the Burning Mountain coal seam fire could continue burning for thousands more years, potentially outlasting current civilizations just as it has outlasted ancient ones. The vast coal deposits beneath the mountain provide ample fuel for this prehistoric blaze to continue its millennia-long journey through the underground seam.

This remarkable fire serves as a reminder of the dynamic, ever-changing nature of our planet and the hidden processes occurring beneath our feet—processes that have been shaping Earth’s surface and atmosphere long before humans began to understand their significance.